


Reunited

by gata20



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Comfort/Angst, Existential Crisis, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Minor Injuries, Punishment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:55:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 61,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26130757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gata20/pseuds/gata20
Summary: 5 years had passed since the events in the Emperor's castle went by. Amity and Luz relationship deteriorated over time and none of them had the strenght or courage to fix it, until one day, Luz stopped coming to the Boiling Isles completely, without saying a word to any of her friends.Amity decided to drown out her sorrows in her training, simply ending up following the dreams everyone around her wanted for her so here she was,  just one more Emperor guard in the middle of thousands. Destined to close her heart to everyone, to grow bitter, but always in hope of her fearless champion coming back.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Eda Clawthorne, Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Lilith Clawthorne, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda, Amity Blight & Mr.Blight & Mrs. Blight, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Hooty & King & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & King, Eda Clawthorne & King & Luz Noceda, Emira Blight/Viney, King & Luz Noceda, Lilith Clawthorne & Everyone, Lilith Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 301
Kudos: 1407





	1. Another day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I started writing this fanfic a few days ago. Its supposed to be a future fanfic, but not completely based on canon events since I don't really know what will happen in the last episode. So lets just say its canon divergent.  
> Still hope you enjoy it!!  
> \-----------------------------------------------  
> The illustration on this chapter was made by @maresdraws on instagram! Go check her content out. Her drawings are really cute!

Living on the Boiling Isles wasn't the same as it was anymore. The never ending life threats couldn't matter less to Amity Blight as the days passed by. Without Luz around to lighten up everyone's life... her life... everything was just filled with darkness, feeling empty and pointless.

Amity had everything she ever wanted, or that's at least what she kept telling herself not to break down at any undesirable moment. She couldn't show weakness nor compassion. Complete obedience and passivity was expected from the Emperor's guards, and she had to be ready for the job, no exceptions. All that exhausted her to indescribable levels.

She woke up once again to the sound of Edric calling for her from the room downstairs.

"Hey Mittens! Breakfast is ready!"

"Argh, shut up…," she growled, as she sunk her face further into her pillow, hoping to dissipate every sound and her own existence from that realm for just a moment.  
Suddenly she felt something messing up with her hair.

"Webster... you know the drill. Never touch my hair, not when I'm thinking about my poor life choices," Amity rubbed her face while she got up from bed, sighing at the sight of her pale reflection on a mirror nearby.

"Always move forward Amity, never look back." 

She always said that to herself every morning before preparing for another day guarding nothing. Her Palisman got closer, landing on her shoulder.

"You will always be my trustworthy best friend, won’t you, Webster?"

Her bat squeaked and gave small jumps on her shoulder.

"You're just buttering me up now, aren't you? We both know what you want." 

As she finished saying those words she gestured a circle with her finger, summoning what could be a banana with weird spots.

"Hey, what the...!" her brother whined about his stolen breakfast.

After feeding her bat some treats, she put her guard uniform on, grabbed her white staff, and went downstairs to greet her brother. Her palisman followed her with her mask on his tiny paws. Wearing that mask was definitally one of the worst parts of the job. You couldn't see much with it.

She entered the kitchen and cringed a bit at the sight of her brother doing a silly dance while he cleaned some dishes.

"Good morning! How is my baby sister doing today?" Edric asked as Amity placed the staff against the nearest wall. She sat down on the table and rested her head on her trembling hand. She didn't like how happy her brother always looked, mainly so early in the morning, so she simply mumbled a weak, neutral "I'm fine".

He handed her a bowl of Crunchy Gremlins, which made her remember the fact that Luz never understood the name of the cereals, but neither did Amity. It had been funny to see the look on Luz's face when tasting them. Everything about her still made her smile to this day.

"Boiling Isles to Amity! You spaced out there for a bit,” her brother asked, clearly worried. "You're thinking about Luz again, aren't you? I miss her too, you know. But it has been a few years now since we hung out... and she hasn't even showed up for a while now. You should move forward."

"I AM moving forward!" Amity got up from her seat and hit her hands furiously on the table, making both Edric and Webster shiver. Edric really touched a sensitive subject in Amity's life. "You're the one always reminding me of that human! I know you worry, but you end up being SO stubborn! Don't you have some kids to entertain with your cheap illusions?!"

Webster jumped in front of Amity, hoping that she would get the hint. She had messed up. Her brother was trying to pretend, but he looked ready to break down right there in front of her.

"Edric... I didn't mean it. I'm sorry," Amity's response came out dry and rough, even though she really meant the apology.

"I know…," He turned his back to them, placing his tired hands on the counter. "And by the way... it's quite invigorating to make others smile. You should try it."

Amity approached her hurt brother and hugged him from behind.  
  


"I know Emira turned her back on you to follow her coven dream and make her own family or whatever she calls it, but you don't have to compensate with me. I'm not going anywhere..."

"Thanks Mittens..."

"Now just go outside and do what you do best! Make people happy!" 

Amity felt a bit weird trying to force positiveness by making silly gestures with her arms. Apparently the time she spent with Luz hadn't been enough to make her capable to help her emotionally weak brother.

Luz could always make Edric laugh, while she only hurt him. He wasn't at fault for her own mistakes, but he understood and accepted how Amity behaved. Perhaps it was because he knew Amity was just so done with everything, or maybe because he didn't want to end up alone. She couldn't decide which one was the real reason, but it was comforting either way to still have a family member that actually cared.

"I'll eat something on my way to the Emperor's castle. You can eat my cereal if you want since I stole your fruit earlier... I'm not that hungry anyway."

"You haven't been hungry lately. Are you really feeling alright?"

"What did I just tell you about worrying? I'm a grown up witch. I don't forget to eat. Trust me, Webster is always reminding me of my basic needs."

"Well don't judge him, he was created by you, so no wonder he would have a caring nature," Edric finally smiled, making Amity's heart soften at the compliment.

"Yeah, just don't tell that to your working buddies. I don't need more guys following me. There are too many as is."

"Yeah, I know you would prefer having girls after you, Mittens. It's not a surprise."

Amity got so embarrassed she summoned a little fire ball on Edric's hair to make him pay for his audacity. The last thing she heard before closing the door behind her was Edric's exaggerated panicked screams. He was such an actor.

Webster was right behind Amity, ready to go to work with her, but she stopped him. She held out her hands for Webster to land gently in them.

"I need you to stay home today. I would feel better if you kept my brother some company. It may somehow make it up to him if you did that."

Her bat was a bit puzzled at the request. They always went together. He shrugged it off soon after, obeying his master's request.

When Webster entered the house's window, Amity heard happy noises coming from inside. Apparently, she had made a good decision. Her brother needed her palisman more than she needed him at that moment.

Now finally alone, she put her mask on. She almost looked like an entirely different witch as she made her way to Bonesborough for another day of work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you really like my fanfic go check out my instagram and maybe follow me: @diana__cinnamon  
> I upload The Owl House content sometimes.


	2. The visit

The Bonesborough's market was full of civilians walking around cheerfully, buying the many useful products all over the small stores. Despite all the wonderful stores around her, Amity would be lying if she didn’t feel like it was simply lacking without Eda's in the mix. Perhaps it was her charismatic way of trying to sell her odd human trinkets, or maybe because everything she sold came from the human realm, reminding her of Luz.

Amity approached a small shack that sold her favorite speciality, Griffin eggs sandwiches. They were quite expensive due to the griffins being dangerous and extremely territorial. It was always a risk getting their eggs to the market. However, a griffin wouldn't be an issue for any good and experienced witch like herself, so she didn't worry.

A few people continued to stare at her, including the cyclops cooking the eggs in front of her, almost as if they were afraid. She was thankful her identity was hidden, because all the eyes on her were starting to become overwhelming.

The relationship between witches and the emperor's coven had only deteriorated after the civilians of the Boiling Isles discovered what the Emperor and Lilith did to Eda. His guards weren't seen as heroes anymore, nor the Emperor. However, no one had the courage or power necessary to defy his authority, so he was still ruling the Isles even though most witches now detested him.

In the end, people seemed more afraid of losing everything they knew, from their lives to the whole Isle itself, than to fight one powerful witch. The fact he possessed the heart of the whole island didn't help. It seemed he had everyone in the palm of his powerful hand.

Amity only tolerated the job solely because of the snails and that she could use all types of magic. Besides that, she couldn't care less about what people thought.

The cook handed her a bag with three sandwiches inside as she paid them. She walked away from all the looks that would eat her alive if they could. The further she got from the market, the less their voices rang in her ears, finally granting her some peace and quiet. Amity drew a purple circle on the ground with her feet, turning herself invisible in case she was being followed by any uninvited witches.

A few steps further and she was in front of the forest located on the outside edges of the city. It was a good thing she didn't live far away from the woods or else it would take her forever to reach her destination. Amity started devouring one of the sandwiches as she kept walking through the annoying woods filled with one-eyed talking birds.

One of them even dared to try and steal her bag of food from her, but Amity summoned a small magical rope that restrained the bird, making him fall into the ground, completely defenseless.

"You shouldn't be here..."

"Leave now..."

"You'll get in trouble!"

Those were the kind of things the birds constantly repeated every time she stepped foot in that area. They really didn't like her, but oh well. Maybe they would think twice before stealing her food next time.

The green haired witch had finally reached the place she walked all this distance for. With a snap of her fingers the spell of invisibility was cancelled and the birds could annoy her once again. She was walking in the middle of nowhere, nothing could be seen besides a couple of trees surrounding an empty space in the middle of the forest. Without waiting any longer, Amity approached it. She reached both her hands out in front of her as if there was an invisible wall there.

"It's still here. Thank god," she said as she started whispering a long spell with her eyes closed. 

Suddenly, she felt a punch in the stomach that caught her off guard. She gave a pained grunt as it threw her onto the ground.

"Hooty?! What the hell?!" Amity coughed, shocked at the unexpected blow from the guardian demon.

"Oh! Sorry, Amity! I thought one of those silly guards had found our hiding place. I panicked."

"I am the only guard that knows you're here. You need to relax." 

She shrugged off some dirt from her white uniform. Did he even know how hard it was to clean dirt from white fabric?

Hooty looked at her with sadness in his big brown eyes, but he soon forgot what happened and smiled after seeing the bag on the ground, showing a bit of a very delicious sandwich.

"You brought food, hoot hoot!" He screamed as he pounced on the bag, almost munching half of the sandwich inside his big mouth in one bite.

"Don't eat all of it! Half of that is for King, you gluttonous owl!" Amity pulled the sandwich rapidly out of his beak.

"Okay, geez," he complained, very annoyed for not being able to enjoy his meal in peace. "I'm thirsty now."

As he said that, he opened the house's door and stretched himself to the nearest lake to satisfy his thirst. With the useless argument dealt with, the girl placed what was left of the food back inside the bag before composing herself once again. When she was about to enter the dark building, a shadow came flying out of it, rushing past her. She turned herself in the direction of the mysterious shadow to find Owlbert picking her mask up for her.

"Oh! Thanks, Owbert! I didn't notice it fell," she thanked the old owl palisman by petting him on the head. "I almost lost it thanks to SOMEONE." Her gaze fell upon the tube owl that was distracted with swallowing liters of water.

"Hoot?" was the only thing he said back, clearly unaware of what had just been said about him. Amity really thought it was a waste of her time trying to knock some sense into Hooty.

Finally, she entered the Owl House. There were no lights turned on in the house. The light coming from the window was the only light source available, but that was nothing new for Amity. Ever since Eda had been rescued by Luz, Amity, and co., she hadn't been the same. The curse really took the best of her.

"Luz, is that you?!" King showed up in the living room with his tail wagging from side to side, but it fell to the ground in disappointment when he saw the true visitor.

"Oh, it's you..."

"It's nice to see you too, King. I suppose this means there's no sign of Luz yet?" She asked as she made herself at home by sitting on the old, dirty sofa in the room. "If you're not happy to see me, I suppose you don't want these fresh and delicious griffin sandwiches?" she held out her arm, shaking the bag softly in his direction.

"Gimme, gimme! Finally, some epic food. Imagine how many died fighting for these eggs!"

King could be so morbid sometimes.

"Where's Eda?"

"Oh, she will be here any minute. She was in the kitchen playing around with some potions and ingredients."

"I heard you brought some delicious grub for us? Did I hear correctly?" 

The woman's hoarse voice was getting closer, her steps heavier as she entered the living room. Then, Amity saw Luz’s idol. Eda was leaning against the wall; clearly tired, but happy. The girl could never get used to her black left eye. Even though her curse was lifted, she kept the black eye as a scar, a reminder of all the suffering her sister caused her all those years. The worst wasn't even the feral appearance of the eye, but the fact she couldn't see from it. That empty eyeball gave her chills.

"Yes, I got food for all of you. As a way to apologize for not showing up the last few weeks. Things haven't been easy."

"You don't have to explain anything to this old disabled woman, kid. Just live your life. We will manage," she said as she gave a bite on the last intact sandwich.

Amity hated when Eda put herself down like that. She was once the strongest witch alive, she couldn't just act like it was the end. She had made a promise to them that she would help them when they needed it. She felt responsible, even if it had nothing to do with her. It was all between Lilith and Eda, but she once was Lilith's protégé. She somehow felt responsible for not being able to prevent the incident at the Emperor's castle. So, here she was, trying to make things right, even if it was too late to fix anything.

Owlbert startled her a little when he showed up in front of her nose, with a frown on his cute small face. She understood what he meant, even if he couldn't talk.

"Sorry Owlbert, but Webster didn't come with me today. I know you like to play together, but I had a job for him."

He let out a couple of sad hoots as he landed on the table in front of the sofa. It seemed Amity was really good at disappointing people today.

“I'll bring him with me next time. What do you say?"

The palisman's mood changed drastically, he was now flying around the room hooting like crazy.

"Oh, we will hear this for a while now. Thanks, kid. It was about time we heard some happy noises around this place."

Eda's smile made Amity's heart jump a little. She hadn't seen that smile in a long time, yet couldn't really blame Eda for it. After getting saved, she had to hide from the Emperor by casting an invisibility spell on the house with the help of Amity and her siblings. They had to use Hooty's power to change their location too, even though the demon didn't like the idea of moving away. He liked the view too much.

Eda was too tired to even cast magic properly at that time, and she still struggled with it. They have been safe from that day onwards, but had to sacrifice most of their freedom. Amity even started supporting them by sharing her earnings with them. She had too much of it anyway, could practically swim in it. But even with that help, the inhabitants of the Owl House had problems getting food sometimes.

King could literally go to the nearest garbage can and eat anything from it, but Eda was the major issue. She basically had to focus all her energy to make an illusion of a random kid to go buy food for her. When she had no strength, King would have to hide in the shadows until he reached Amity's house to ask for her help. Now that she thought about it, all these things she was doing for her second family was making her life much harder.

"Kid? You there?" Eda called Amity out of her trance. "You were staring out of the window and weren't replying."

"Huh... Yeah, sorry... Was thinking about work and... stuff like that."

"Problems in Emperor’s land? Is he making your life a nightmare? If that's the case, join the club." 

She finally gave the last bite on her food, sucking her fingers clean afterwards. She was hungrier than Amity thought.

"Too much work, that's all. I... I gotta go. You probably need to rest and things like that..." 

Amity got up of the sofa and made her way towards the door. Her clumsy actions gave it away, she was uncomfortable and Eda noticed that. When she was almost out of the house Eda called her out.

"Thanks for the sandwich, kid. And you know... all the things you're doing for us. It means a lot."

Amity didn't even face her. Only put her mask on as she prepared to go anonymous once again.

"I know... I'll see when I can visit again. If you need anything, you know where I live."

Hooty closed the door and told her goodbye as she moved away from the once again invisible Owl House. Every day was becoming more unbearable for Amity. Everyone was counting on her. Everyone except the one person she wanted the most to need her.

"Damn it, Luz Noceda. I'm doing all this mostly for you, and you're nowhere to be seen…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you really like my fanfic go check out my instagram and maybe follow me: @diana__cinnamon  
> I upload The Owl House content sometimes.


	3. The mysterious intruder

When Amity got closer to the conformatorium, a lot of emperial guards could be seen walking from side to side and in every corner. They were all over the place.

With their faces covered, making them nameless, soulless. She couldn't understand why it was so heavily-guarded, creatures that were arrested there weren't even that big of a threat, for her it was a waste of resources.

She got inside the prison, heading to the armory to get her spear to finally start guarding the place. She thought using her magic would be more useful than using a spear, but she didn't make the rules, Wrath did and she was only there to follow them. Today she would have to guard the prisoners, which was an easy task, because, well, they were prisoners they wouldn't go anywhere.

The place irradiated a dark aura, but at least it was better than having to stay in the Emperor's castle. Being forced to feel the titan's beating heart during a whole week would drive any witch crazy.

Edric thought that Amity worked there everyday though, she couldn't let him know that she hadn't that much of an higher role to be guarding the castle everyday. Most would say it was an honor to be there all the days of your work time, but for Amity it was a curse.

No wonder why. When the Emperor found out she helped the human save Eda he almost killed her. She could still feel his hands grabbing her by the collar of her old school uniform.

"I should finish you! You and Lilith! It's unacceptable!"  
She felt his warm breath on her face, he was so close that she thought he would devour her in that instant.

She haven't dared speak at a situation like that. "Do you think anyone would care if a stubborn creature like you simply vanished?!" His words pierced her heart like daggers, she wanted to belong to that coven but now... She only wanted to run away from it.

"You're lucky for being a Blight... I have a lot of respect for your family, so I will let you go with a warning." He let her go, throwing her against the nearest pillar in the room. She heard her arm crack. "...but if you ever betray me again... Not even them will save you."

Definitely the day she cooperated with Luz had been one of the worst of her entire life. Almost dying in the process of the rescue and then having her life threatened by the megalomaniac ruler of the Boiling Isles. What a rollercoaster. Just thinking it had been the family name which saved her made her stomach turn, none of them cared about her own self, just a stupid name that didn't even belong to her in the first place.

"Hey you, guard!"

Amity trembled when she saw Warden Wrath going on her direction. She slightly bowed, not saying a word, which had been taught to her on the very first day. Emperor guards could never talk back to their superiors.

"I want you to go to the top tower and guard the contraband forcefield. One of your useless colleagues was fired so we need a substitute up there. Go now!"

The way he talked to her didn't really affect her, he always used a raucous tone towards every guard, no exceptions, even if Amity was an important witch, when you had your uniform on, you stopped being yourself, you were just a number like all the others working for Emperor Belos, basically replaceable menagerie.

She made her way upstairs like it was ordered, reaching a long dark corridor with its walls filled with Emperor's logos. At the end of it there was the huge door, with the word "contraband" written on it, that she needed to protect from invaders.

That area was extremely dark, it was always like that, occasionally with chances of thunder, but it didn't bother Amity, she liked the dark. The hours went by and it was almost time for her to leave and go home.

"This is so boring... Even being near the prisoners was more entertaining than staring out of tiny windows. Their conversations were hilarious sometimes, no doubt." She admitted as she pulled her mask up, finally being able to feel some refreshing wind on her pale face. It wasn't like someone would give her more orders without her noticing. She hated to wear that bird mask.

After a few minutes of relaxation, she had the brilliant idea of trying some new tricks with her spear, it was close to a staff so it would suffice. Eda could do cool tricks with her staff, spinning it around with both hands and even with one single hand, she would do a great Azura, hum... Perhaps Azura was inspired on her?  
Amity was too immersed on her thoughts, that she failed miserably on the acrobatics.

Out of nowhere she heard a sound coming from inside the door, letting her spear fall to the ground with the jumpscare.

"What in the Isles name?" She immediately turned her back to the door as she grabbed the spear back up. "An intruder? Now? But my shift is almost finished!" She wasn't really expecting a robbery at that time, just a few more minutes and she wouldn't be the one responsible for it. Losing this job wasn't an option.

She turned the doorknob, opening the heavy door in front of her to simply face nothing. Everything looked exactly the same, the huge forcefield was shining like always, until a shadow behind the field moved.

"What the.."

A person dressed in a cape with the mask of a cat? The intruder was for sure clumsy and had a weird sense of fashion. Amity wouldn't have found out about the robbery if it wasn't for that clumsiness.  
She noticed that the intruder had a staff in his hands, clearly stolen from inside the barrier.

"What do you think you're doing?! That's not yours to take."

They locked eyes for a few seconds, until the robber decided to rush to the window.

"Stop!" Amity shouted, running after the mysterious person that was now climbing the window with surprising agility.

"I can't believe I'll need to run after this bastard." She thought as she climbed another window herself. Not taking the spear with her. "This would just slow me down." She was now crouching at the window, looking around just to find a huge bulky plant stuck to the tower's wall full of blossoming flowers. The invader was sliding down on it.

"Oh you got to be kidding me." The first time I don't bring Webster, this happens?!" She cursed as she used both her hands to imbue herself with a pink aura that allowed her to walk through the air as long as she didn't break the circle. It required a lot of focus and consumed a bit of energy since she wasn't very experienced with that kind of magic. One single mistake and she would fall.

As soon as she was on top of the plant it started to dematerialize behind her. She didn't even have time to say or think anything, besides sliding down what there was left of it.

"I'm not paid enough for this?!" She was going too fast but just hoped the plant didn't disappear before she reached the ground or she would soon become a Blight pancake. She could see a dot moving on the ground, it was the intruder. He was now running out of the conformatorium's limits.

Amity had time to take a quick glance under her. Apparently nobody noticed what was happening, which was good. At least the intruder didn't damage anything to worsen her situation. Only when close to the ground she saw that the plant wasn't stuck to it so when the time to land came, she fell flat on the ground.

"Aaagh! Even his magic has clumsiness." She said after coughing some dirt. When she opened her eyes she could still see the intruder, not very far away. He was going in the direction of the village, in a chance to mislead her. It was still not too late, she could still arrest him. She got up flinching at the pain her body received moments before, forcing herself to run anyways.

They got through Bonesborough market, pushing people out of their way, neither of them was giving up. After a bit the intruder switched direction, turning left at a corner, Amity was getting closer to him and he probably noticed that because when Amity turned a few seconds later, a fire wall had been summoned under her feet, stopping her for a brief moment.

She put out the fire with a water spell without thinking twice and continued her chase. Those spells could slow her down but not stop her. They were out of the city now, running around forests and a couple of existent houses.

Suddenly it started to rain. Boiling rain. A plague at this moment would only bring problems. Amity had to create a protective shield around her or she would be completely burned. She did it but, surprisingly the fugitive witch in front of her wasn't doing anything to prevent getting her skin corroded by the plague. The cape had holes in it now. So this witch knew powerful elemental spells but didn't know something as essential as a protective spell? Something was off.

The witch hadn't pointed the fire wall spell at her earlier, witches need to aim, they can't simply summon a wall at the exact time someone is crossing a path without looking in the victims direction. A kid wouldn't dare have his future destroyed even thought they could control every type of magic, so this person was an adult that belonged to the Emperor's coven which was unlikely, or an outcast.

Unless...

It all made sense to Amity now. Her heart began to beat faster than ever.

"Stop running!" She shouted in panic as she stopped to summon a gigantic abomination in front of her, double her size. She had to hurry up. "You'll get hurt!"

The abomination was arising from the mud, and getting burned by the rain at the same time she talked. If that was happening to a brain dead creature, she couldn't imagine how the person in front of her was feeling.

"Abomination grab the intruder!"

And so it did, giving spaced steps, closing the gap between both of them quicker than the intruder expected. Grabbing him with ease, but when the abomination's hand was around his victim and celebrating his capture, the hooded thief pulled one last trick from his sleeve. Melting the magical golem's hand right away with a fire spell, which made it let him fall. To his disappointment, directly into the guard's arms. The burning pain caused by the boiling rain made it difficult to even try to escape. It felt like a sunburn but worse.

"Stop struggling dumb human! I don't want to hurt you. Abomination cover us!" Soon they had a golem protecting them of the incoming rain. It wouldn't take long for it to be completely melted by the rain, but it would have to do.

"Emperor guards aren't to be trusted." Amity got punched right in the face after hearing those words. She let the wounded person fall to the ground because of the stinging pain in her nose.

"Aaagh! It burns so much! Argh, mierda!"

Amity touched her nose, which was bleeding quite a bite, but not as much as the girl under her. She was still trying to run away by crawling across the mud. The young witch rushed to her grabbing her by the arms. She was going to get her wounds infected if she kept on the mud.

"Noceda. Stop, can't you see? It's me, Amity!" She admitted, throwing her mask to the ground so that the girl under her could inspect her once familiar face.

Luz stopped moving after that, her cat mask was filled with big holes, completely corroded. It couldn't hide her identity anymore. She let her head lay in the mud, in surrender. Amity didn't let her rest there, grabbing her back up, so she could finally see her beautiful brown eyes, they were full of sorrow and pain. The human was silently crying, looking Amity emptily in the eyes. The witch couldn't really tell if Luz recognized her.

"Amity Blight? You remember me right?" She started feeling Luz shaking in her hands, only then she saw it, there was a huge wound in her belly, probably provoked by a mix of the boiling rain and the fire spell she casted right in front of her body moments earlier.

"I'm going to help you." The first thing she took care of was the protective spell, no more boiling rain could arm Luz, even though she was badly hurt already. After that she saw Luz eyes slowly closing. She wasn't moving anymore, she had fainted.

"Noceda?! Luz!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you really like my fanfic go check out my instagram and maybe follow me: @diana__cinnamon  
> I upload The Owl House content sometimes.


	4. Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you don't get confused. There's two flashbacks here so, I apologize in advance for perhaps not being very clear with it.  
> \-----------------------------------------------  
> First illustration was made by @maresdraws on instagram! Go check her content out. Her drawings are really cute!

Luz had to get away from everything and everyone, anything related to the Boiling Isles hurt her badly, but the human realm wasn't any better.

After barely getting out of the Emperor's castle alive, she had to deal with Eda's health state, which she couldn't handle well. It had been all her fault, if she hadn't been naive and tried to lift Eda's curse by getting the healing hat, the powerful witch would still be happily selling human treasures to everyone around Bonesborough's market.

The girl destroyed her mentor's life, the anguish becoming even more unbearable with each day she spent in the Isles. They had to hide completely from the world, which Luz hated, she couldn't even go to Hexside to learn new spells anymore. Her friends kept visiting her at the Owl House a couple of times when they had free time, but Willow and Gus saw the sadness Luz was feeling, so they tried to help her human friend by asking Amity and Viney to teach them some spells they learned in their own tracks.

Even if she couldn't go to the school, she would still learn a few new glyphs for her amusement. It was okay for a while, but soon Luz decided it was a waste of time, she was only slowing her friends down and being a burden.

After what happened, she kept coming back to the Boiling Isles every Summer. There were no more camps, so lying started to be a bad habit of hers, she told her mother those summers that she would stay with a few friends. She couldn't believe her mom trusted her that much. It wasn't totally a lie either, Luz would definitely stay with a few friends, but not from her realm, so it was more like omitting.

Pretending that everything in the Boiling Isles was what it once had been was also a lie that soon became a reality for her during those two years but she eventually reached a breaking point. Being in denial never has good results and Luz learned that.

Dealing emotionally with the problems of the human world and coming back to the Boiling Isles to be confronted with this distorted reality wasn't working for her, it just wasn't. In any world she got in, there was pain and suffering.

Just in the Boiling Isles she had a lot to deal with already, first Eda's blindness, then Lilith disappearance, then not being able to become a real witch and what hurt her the most, Amity.

Both kept hanging out during that period for Luz satisfaction, mostly inside Amity's reading hideout, so that Luz didn't have to hide her human side. They didn't talk much though. The young witch looked distant but weird at the same time, even more towards the human's affections. She couldn't really understand her, did she still wanted to be her friend or did she hate her? It was hard to tell.

When Emira and Edric insisted in joining them a couple of times, because they also missed Luz, they always tried to encourage their little sister to hug the human back and to finally spit the truth out, that seriously puzzled her. She was curious, but Amity didn't explain what her siblings meant, she had closed herself in her own thoughts and kept acting stiff like a rock to her disappointment.

It pained Luz to see such things, but maybe she deserved it, after all, she let Amity help her out in the castle, she put her future in risk for her, her mentor probably died because of them too, so Amity probably regretted it right after.

The latina knew that something happened inside that forsaken place after Amity pushed her out of the big front door of the castle. She told her and King to take Eda away from there the fastest they could, that she and Lilith would win them some time. It actually worked. If it wasn't for Amity and Lilith probably they all would have been captured and tortured by Belos.

When she got back to them, she looked traumatized, there was no sign of Lilith and her left arm was dislocated, Luz tried to know what happened, but Amity refused to talk, she couldn't find the right words. The human girl would never forget that day. She couldn't forgive the Emperor for his horrible actions. He hurt Eda, her friends, Amity, he even hurt Lilith or worse... and that was unforgivable.

One day, Amity told her over the phone that she needed to talk to her, that it was important, she could tell because her friend's voice was shaking. They both met in the library's hideout like usual. Amity was already inside, impatiently waiting for her on her purple chair.

She jumped of it when Luz finally showed up.

"I'm here Amity. I came the fastest I could. What's wrong?" The girl asked as she took her cape off and placed her bag on a corner next to a shelf.

"Huh, hey... Luz." The witch didn't know how or where to start. The nerves were eating her alive.

"Is everything, okay?" Luz placed her hands on Amity's shoulders, giving her a supportive look in a chance to encourage her friend to say what she wanted to say so badly. It ended up making her even more nervous, she was all red and Luz didn't know if she was feeling very well.

"I... Well... In fact I have two things to tell you.. that might change my life or even both our lives... It really depends on what you will say honestly... it's uncertain at this point...

"Amity..."

"Ye... Yes?"

"Just say it. I'm your friend, you don't need to be nervous." Amity loved Luz smile, it gave her strength, more than she liked to admit.

"That's exactly my problem..."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that I don't want to just be your friend."

Everything that happened next passed so fast that she thought it was a dream. Amity's lips were on hers, they were literally touching, she was kissing her and couldn't believe it. It all made sense now. How could she have been so blind to it all? To all the hints? Amity acted all weird not because she didn't like affection but because she liked her affections just too much.

Luz could feel Amity's trembling hands on her face, she seemed so insecure that Luz couldn't resist but hug her. Her own heart was beating like crazy, that she thought it would burst. After all the bad things that happened she really needed this.

When they stopped kissing, they locked eyes with each other. Amity was making that cute thing with her ears when she was embarassed. It was so cute how she could move them at will.

"Oh god..." Amity covered her red face with her hands.

"I can't believe I did it."

"I got to say I wasn't expecting this turn of events." Luz was looking at her with a smug look on her face and crossed arms. "I didn't know friends kissed."

"What?!" Amity was caught off guard. Had she failed once again? Was Luz really that oblivious?

"Oh, relax Amity. I was joking. Come here." Luz threw her arms around the small witch squeezing her hard in the process.

"So does this mean... You like me too?!" Amity could feel the air leaving her lungs. She could hardly breath.

"Well... I'm a bit confused... But I have to say I really like you a lot Amity. You enlightned me with that kiss, not gonna lie." She declared as she grabbed her hand softly and leaned her forehead against Amity's.

"For how long did you have this crush on me?"

"Oh... Huh. That's an interesting question. For two years now..." Amity didn't look Luz in the eyes, she was too embarassed by the truth.

"Wow... And I didn't notice it until now? You hid it very well."

"Not exactly... You were completely oblivious to it."

"Oops." Luz scratched her head, flustered at her own stupid self.

They enjoyed that special moment in silence for a few seconds, until Luz cut it off with a badly timed question that Amity hoped she wouldn't ask.

"So what's the other thing you had to tell me? You said it was two things?" Luz asked as she caressed Amity's hair.

"Oh its nothing, don't worry about it. It's not important..."

"Of course it is. You literally said that to me over the phone earlier." Luz was confused at how hesitant Amity got all of a sudden.

"Just forget it, Luz."

When Luz was about to insist, they got interrupted by Amity's siblings, who entered the hideout uninvited. They have been probably eavesdropping.

"So how did it go?! Are you two cool?" Emira asked as she hugged both girls from behind. Edric simply smilled at them.

"Of course. Why wouldn't we be? Did you know Amity had a crush on me?"

"We knew from the beginning, kitty. In fact everyone knew."

"What?!" Luz gasped. She couldn't believe everyone knew before her. It would have been nice if they told her sooner.

"Yeah, who do you think forced her to get here to confess her feelings?" Edric asked as he ruffled Amity's hair. As expected his sister got annoyed.

"Okay, you can go now." Amity ordered them both to leave.

"Sure baby sister, but you own us one! It was thanks to us that you got together!" Edric winked at both girls before disappearing outside the hideout, right after her twin sister.

When they were finally alone again Amity started to organize her books and paper work to take home, but one of the papers fell to the ground, which Luz didn't resist catching as the gentleman she was. Could she be considered a gentleman? Hum, perhaps a gentlewoman? She was one of those either way.

"You let this letter fall. It's a pretty fancy letter." Luz curiously checked the golden paper written on a very flashier type of letter. The sentence ' _congratulations, you were accepted in the Emperor's coven_ ' caught her attention.

"Luz give me that." Amity tried to take the letter away from her hand the fastest she could, but Luz was pressing her fingers into it with determination. So she didn't insist in fear of ripping it apart.

"You joined the Emperor's coven? Emperor Belos coven?!"

"Luz I can explain, I..." Luz didn't even let Amity say other word.

"What could you possibly tell me that would make sense for this decision?! The Emperor’s coven is evil, do you remember what they did to Eda? To your mentor? To you?! He drinks the juice out of palismans?! How messed up can that be?! He probably even drains the souls of his guards too and you want to be one?!" Luz could hardly believe what she had just read.

"Luz... I..." Amity was staring at her feet, pressing her books against her chest, in shame of the truth Luz was throwing at her face.

"You what? You don't know the gravity of the situation do you?? Us being together would only put you in danger, your soon to be boss wants me dead."

"Emperor Belos didn't need to know. We could still hang out together like we did till this very day." Amity finally speaked out. Hanging her arms out in anger, letting all the books fall into the floor in the process. "It's not like I have a choice either way! My parents made me commit to this..."

"You're the only one that can make that choice!" Luz shouted while pointing her finger at Amity. She started crying out of anger and disappointment.

"Luz let's talk about this. You're too nervous." Amity's heart feared for the worst and it was actually happening. "If only you let me explain." She tried to grab Luz hand, but she slapped it away.

"Don't touch me. I can't believe you're still on the enemy's side. After all the suffering he made us go through." She rushed to her things, picking them up in a heartbeat.

"What are you doing?" Amity still asked even knowing the answer wouldn't please her. She could feel her tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

"I'm leaving this forsaken place. Nothing is keeping me here. Not anymore."

"But Luz I need you!" Amity's voice cracked.

"You need that coven more." Luz let the golden letter fall to the ground, looking Amity in the eyes, in complete silence. Her own eyes said everything, no more words were needed. She turned her back to the green haired girl, but as she was about to get out of the hideout she felt the floor shake as a huge slimy hand got around her body, holding her back.

"You can't go."

Luz looked behind her, getting scared all of a sudden, she had never seen Amity so angry as at that moment. The abomination hand had cracked the ground in the process of being created.

The young witch couldn't help it but lash out at Luz. Her eyes were practically burning and swollen from crying and the hand was squeezing Luz harder each second that passed because of that.

"Amity... Let me go..." She was clenching her jaw.

Luz could see Amity baring her teeth.

"If you really like me as you claim to be true, you will let me go." Luz had to say it. There was nothing else she could say in that moment.

Amity completely snaped mentally. She liked Luz a lot... She was right, she had to let her go. Luz was the only good thing in her life, but she couldn't force her to stay. She fell to the floor, finally coming to her senses, giving up. The magical hand disappeared after a few moments, but the floor was still broken just like her, she felt rejected and the only person that gave light to her life was about to leave.

She laid on the ground, covering her head with her hands, sobbing loudly and shaking.

"Did anything that I did for you matter at all?!" She asked muffled. She didn't get a reply, Luz probably ran away after her burst of rage. She was so stupid. So she looked up, surprisingly finding Luz still in front of her, unmoving. She was still crying as well.

"...More than you think, Blight." She said with a monotone voice, her chin was trembling.

The last thing Amity saw with her blurry puffy eyes had been Luz disappointed face, that was the last memory she got of her and it wasn't pleasant. She couldn't have messed it up more.

Luz never showed up in the Boiling Isles after that and Amity was completely responsible for it. So when she found out the thief was Luz, it was almost like she had stopped falling of her never ending hole of desperation.

Right after Luz lost consciousness under her, Amity ordered the abomination to stick the staff she stole earlier in his body and to grab both of them carefully, not to hurt Luz even more. It placed her on top of its shoulders and started running on all four limbs.

Mounting her abomination to get home faster was the only option available, she had to take care of her wounds fast, being exposed to boiling rain for so long could have horrible consequences that no amount of healing stickers could fix.

As she was about to get home she could swear she felt Luz cuddling closer to her chest. Was she waking up? Maybe her feelings were getting the best of her, but she was a guard now, she couldn't succumb to such foolish feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you really like my fanfic go check out my instagram and maybe follow me: @diana__cinnamon  
> I upload The Owl House content sometimes.


	5. You're safe here

Luz woke up at a sudden discomfort all over her body, she felt so itchy and every part of it was stinging. Not only that but an awful pain consumed her soon after gaining her senses back, making her growl. The blinding lights in the room weren't helping either.

As she covered her eyes with her hand she felt something stuck in her face. She had small gauze bandages in her forehead and cheeks. She also noticed the bandage in her right hand was cleaner than the one she had before, presenting a healing sticker over it too. In fact not only her hand, but a lot of her body was bandaged.

The staff she had stolen from the contraband room could be seen leaning on the wall in front of her. She tried to get up, in hopes of grabbing it, but her body screamed, she felt an agonizing throbbing pain in her abdomen that forbade her from even trying it a second time.

"Mierda. What the hell." Luz gave up moving, still she tried to look down, pulled her large shirt up and touched her belly to see what was so wrong with her. It stinged like crazy, that she didn't dare press her fingers on it again.

There was nothing the human could do but wait for her fate, even though she was sure whoever brought her here didn't want to harm her. Her memories were blurry and didn't let her remember much about what happened after leaving the comformatorium or who brought her here.

She turned her face to the nearest window decorated with beautiful purple curtains, the boiling rain was still hissing outside, and each drop that stroke the glass would be welcomed with a small orange glow that would soon disappear and form once again. That made her think about the forcefield spell Eda used to cast on the Owl House, it was funny to remember Hooty complaining about getting his stucco corroded.

The room she was in had light pink colors in the walls, a shelf filled with books of every size and a desk, the person that slept here was definitely a book lover. It was very relaxing to be there and the bed was very comfy too, which was a plus. The only downside was the emperor's coven poster stuck on the wall. _'The emperor?'_ She thought, as the memory of a guard holding her popped into her head.

A few moments later, steps could be heard approaching the bedroom. The door opened and the visitor brought food in a bed tray with her.

"You're finally awake. I'm glad."

Luz was speechless for seeing Amity Blight in front of her, she was wearing very casual and simple clothes: a black shirt and purple pijama pants.

After they had their first sleepover together years ago, that Amity had decided to use more comfy like human clothes, it was remarkable that she still had that habit. She looked paler than usual though.

Luz saw her gesturing a pink circle with her finger, making the bed tray levitate in front of her. She finally saw what she was going to eat: a few small purple tentacles, with some salad and mashed potatoes. There was a glass of yellow juice too.

"You should eat. You got badly wounded by the rain earlier. I did what I could by covering the burns and used as many healing stickers as I could." She explained as she got a hold of the chair in her room, dragging it towards the bed, so she could sit next to Luz. "I'm not a healer, but I called Edric's crush and she told me what to do so I hope I didn't put pressure on your burned skin. She also told me what to feed you."

"I'm not hungry, Amity..." Luz flinched at the sight of the food. It didn't look that tasty or even edible, it was Boiling Isles food after all. She wasn't used to it anymore.

Amity gave Luz a sad smile, hesitantly touching her leg in fear of being pushed away, luckily she wasn't. Probably Luz was just so tired she didn't care at that point.

"I know we have grown apart since... You know... but I still want to see you well."

Luz didn't reply, she looked so tired, her eyes even had bags under them. The optimistic and always smiling Luz that Amity once knew didn't exist anymore.

"I knew you wouldn't want to eat this food so I used a spell on it. You can eat it. It will taste like your human food."

"What do you mean?" Luz asked curiously as she sticked the fork in one of the slimy tentacles, inspecting it.

"It's a spell that messes with your brain, it makes anything you eat taste like the food you like. It's very useful when you hate most types of food if we think about it."

Luz began eating, Amity was right, the tentacles tasted like chicken legs and the juice was deliciously sweet. She ate for a while but then noticed the bloody paper in the witch's nose.

"What happened to your nose?"

"You don't remember? You punched me in the face when I was trying to help you..." Amity said rubbing the back of her neck. "...and fainted not long after."

The human girl was still processing everything that happened, she clearly couldn't remember the punch, but she knew a guard chased her. She groaned putting her head down and pressing her hand to her face, feeling tears building up.

"Why do I screw everything up?!"

"Hey, Luz, it's okay. It doesn't even hurt much anymore!" Amity frowned, trying to calm her old friend down by running her hand through her messy hair.

"I'm sorry... I'll leave tomorrow. You don't need me to be a burden, unless... you'll hand me over to the Emperor!" Luz was all defensive now, trying to move away from Amity's touch, she noticed that.

"I'm not handing you over. I just want to heal you and no you're not leaving, not until your wounds get better. You can barely stand." Amity admitted, reaching Luz wounded face so she could look directly into her eyes. She needed to feel that she meant it and cared. "Your abdomen got very burned, its very swollen. Your wound won't heal that fast even with healing stickers."

"How can I trust you. You're the enemy now." The human looked away, all the things from the past were coming to her head at that moment. She cleaned the tears off her face with her thumb.

After hearing those things Amity's smile fell, Luz was right, she was working for the enemy and that alone was enough reason for not being trusted.

"But I am NOT your enemy. I'm just trying to help you! Can't you see?" Amity got up from her chair, turning her back to Luz so she couldn't see tears flowing down her face. Luz was finally back and she couldn't keep it together. How ridiculous that was. 

"You're safe here. I would be very happy if you stayed until you got better, but... its your choice if you want to be so stubborn. It always was and I can't force you to stay... I learned that."

"Amity..." 

"Forget it, Noceda. Just finish your meal and have some rest."

She decided it would be better to just leave the room, Luz needed to sleep and stay alone mostly, but deep inside she was the one wanting to stay alone to cry. She went in the door's direction ready to leave the bedroom, when her brother showed up in front of her like a flash, making both of them almost collide.

"Is everything alright?!"

"Geez, Edric. Calm down. Everything is fine, Luz will be alright. I took care of her." Amity crossed her arms in disapproval of his exaggerated behavior that annoyed her so much. "I swear to god, your girlfriend overreacts when telling the news."

"Bona is just trying to help, besides she's not my girlfriend Mittens, you know that!" Edric blushed at the mention of the healer's name.

"Oh, she won't be if you take too long to invite her out."

"That's besides the point!" He cheerfully said as he pushed past Amity to greet Luz, getting shocked when seeing her.

"Hey, Luz! it's nice seeing you again! Wow... You look like a rag..." He said as he sat on the bottom of the bed.

"Hello Edric, long time no see... You haven't changed a bit." Luz scratched her head a bit uncomfortable at the Blight twin, she wasn't expecting for him to see her in that state or to live there either. But if he lived there, Emira did too. They were always seen together, where could she possibly be?

"I see that Mittens lent you some of her clothes?" He made a smug look as he turned his face in Amity's direction. Everyone in the room could clearly feel the embarrassment in Amity's face build up, her ears gave it away, but she didn't change her stance, trying to stay the most neutral possible.

"Her clothing was full of holes! I wasn't going to bandage her wounds and let her keep those messy clothes. It would be a lack of courtesy. Blights are always courteous. " She looked away, but as she did, she could have swore Luz smiled at her for a second.

"We aren't judging, now going back to you Luz. You disappeared years ago and showed up all of a sudden. Something bad happened?" Edric was genuinely curious and worried, but Luz didn't feel like telling stories at that time of the night.

"Well I..." She was cut off by Amity that tried to put Edric in is place.

"Could you perhaps not overwhelm the human with your questions? She's very vulnerable right now. Let her rest." Amity placed her hand on her brother's shoulder, scolding him for being so loud at such a fragile situation. "I know you mean well, but tomorrow you can ask her."

"Sorry... And sorry Luz. I just got very worried. I let feelings get the best of me."

"It's okay, Edric. Sometimes we can't help it." Luz tried to reassure him, she thought he was very cute when worried about his friends and family. Amity really needed to relax a bit, she was indeed tired, but that wasn't reason to scold his brother like that. Somehow Luz envied their relationship, making her wish she also had a sibling to help her out when she needed the most.

"Tomorrow you have to tell me all the news from the human realm! I'm super curious! Sleep well Luz!"

Luz smilled at him, nodding.

Edric left the room afterwards, leaving both girls alone again.

"Well... I better get going too. I'll sleep in the sofa so it will be a long night..." she pointed to the door with her thumb as she remembered how uncomfortable the sofa was.

"Sorry for taking your bed..." Luz apologized as she gave another bite into her food.

"It's fine really. Well, good night Luz."

"Wait..." She was surprised by the girl's fingers touching her arm, giving her chills down her spine, she wasn't expecting that touch. "... Could you perhaps stay until I finish eating and fall asleep? Sometimes I can't sleep that well and things like that."

Amity's eyes started shining at the request, she forgot to breath for a second there. Her heart could be bitter that Luz left for so long, but she wanted to make it up to her so badly, besides she couldn't say no to her, she was a wreck and needed all the support she could get.

"I have an idea. Webster, come here boy."

"You have a dog?"

"Close." As she answered, the small little wood creature showed up in the room, landing under Amity's arm, upside down. "This is my palisman, Webster. He can help you sleep."

"I didn't know you had your own staff!" Luz took her hands to her face, completely awed. "That's so cool, now you have your own companion for life." Luz was delighted by the small white bat, even more when he squeaked as she petted him in the chin with her finger.

"I wove you so much!"

Amity made a huge effort not to reply to that even if she felt it with all her heart _'I love you too, I always have'_.

She coughed, trying to drive her foolish romantic thoughts away.

"Anyways! He is made of pure harmonic magic, he can give you good vibrations that will make you sleep in peace.

"Show her Webster." The bat did as he was requested, getting off her master's arm and flying to Luz head, landing in her hair and shaking his body in it like it was a nest, making himself feel at home to finally sleep for the night.

"Aww this lil guy is a skypuppy."

"That's a weird way to put things, but you're not exactly wrong. Now if you excuse me, I'll leave you two be. You don't need to worry, Webster never fails."

"Aren't you staying?"

"Nah... You probably don't feel very safe around an Emperor guard. I'll come back after a while to take the bed tray back to the kitchen, I won't bother you for the rest of the night."

"Oh, okay... good night Amity."

"Good night, Noceda."

Amity left the room, closing the door behing her. She leaned against it, sighing annoyed at her bonding incompetence.

_'I'm so bad at this.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave your feedback! I would really like to know what you think about this fanfic. :3


	6. Scars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit longer than the others, so I hope it's still enjoyable!  
> Thanks for all your support guys! It really means a lot.  
> Also I didn't have any ideas for a title haha figuring out a name is sometimes harder than having an idea for a chapter.  
> Don't forget to follow me on instagram to be updated about fanart and the fanfic.  
> Instagram: @diana__cinnamon

The next morning came by really fast, Luz only woke up once or twice during that night, not because of insomnia but because her body didn't stop itching. It still had been better than when she slept at her house.

Not being able to turn to the sides of the bed ended up becoming one of the most responsible for that too.  
She didn't feel tired though, she had a well deserved night of sleep.

The sun was shining outside, filling the room with his rays of light, finally the plague had stopped. She was lucky it had been boiling rain and not a painbow.

Looking above her head, she saw Webster, his tiny paws were on top of her forehead, he had made a total nest out of her hair, that she wondered how she would get him out of there.

_'Perhaps letting my hair grow longer wasn't the best idea'._

She stretched her arms slowly, not to harm herself, enjoying a few more moments of relaxation in bed.

When she noticed someone else breathing in the room, it sounded more like snoring. She got up slowly to a sitting position, then she saw her. Amity was sleeping on the chair next to her, with her arms on top of the bed sheets. She had decided to make her some company during the night after all which made Luz very happy.

She didn't know how much she missed Amity sleeping until she saw how peaceful and graceful the young witch looked. Just the simple act of seeing her sleep was making her feel nostalgic. She missed her more than she wanted to admit.

She regretted leaving the Boiling Isles, but it had to be done, Luz couldn't accept Amity's choice and they needed to be apart. The human didn't want her friend to be in danger because of her, but now they were older, more mature. Maybe things could be different, be better. Luckily they could even be friends again...

Unconsciously Luz found herself caressing her green hair, it felt so soft in her hand. Suddenly the girl moved under her touch, which startled Luz to death, making her hide her hand, pretending that she hadn't done anything.

"Good morning Luz. I didn't know you were awake already." Amity rubbed her sleepy eyes and stretched her numb back. "Oh I knew I would feel this in the morning..."

"Good morning Amity! I only woke up moments ago, its not like I was watching you while you slept or anything."

Amity raised one brow at this sudden change of attitude. Yesterday Luz wanted to leave her house without thinking twice and now she was being all weird around her.

"Huh... Okay. Did you sleep well?" She asked standing up afterwards, placing the chair in front of the desk where it belonged.

"Actually I did, the burns were annoying, but I did. Thanks for helping me sleep. And for making me some company too." Luz smilled ear to ear, which caught Amity out of guard, making her blush in the process.

"It... It was nothing really..."

After that Amity decided to get some breakfast for both of them, letting Luz know that she would need to change her bandages and replace the stickers once again to see how the wound was healing. That didn't please the latina, but there was not much she could do, Amity had seen everything the day before anyways, there was nothing to hide anymore. It would be a matter of time until she started making questions.

Amity left Luz alone for a while as she went to the kitchen to grab some food. His brother was already up, making some coffee for his bitter soul. She greeted him on her way to the pantry to grab everything necessary for an healthy breakfast. Edric wanted to see how Luz was doing, but his sister disagreed, telling him to do that later after she left for work, since they would be busy for a while.

"Busy? What kind of busy?" He raised his eyebrows deviously as he took a gulp of coffee from a large cup.

"Don't even start... I need to change her bandages, that's all. Besides we are barely friends, remember?"

"That never stopped people from doing the do."

"EDRIC!" Amity slapped his brother in the arm utterly embarassed at such a perverted thought.

"I was joking, ouch, ouch! Sorry, I'm sorry! Edric laughed as he tried to counter Amity's panicked attacks. "You'll spill my precious coffee!

"It would suit you well." Amity tried to compose herself again by breathing deeply and pulling her messy hair back down. Being teased by her brother was as normal for her as doing magic was, but it still really got the best of her a few times. Her siblings couldn't tell when to stop, boundaries was something they never knew.

She placed everything in the bed tray, going back to the bedroom as fast as she could, to present Luz with the meal she just prepared, this time she brought a bowl of cereals for her and a big sandwich of some typical meat accompanied by a cup of milk for her wounded guest, Luz needed a lot of proteins.

"I'm not even going to ask of which creature this milk comes from..."

"You wouldn't want to know." Amity replied as she swallowed a spoonful of cereals, smilling at Luz with her mouth full again. She was teasing her and Luz couldn't help it but like it.

They ate calmly, cracking a few jokes and shy smiles at each other now and then, it was being a cheerful and delicious breakfast, a good change of routine as Amity called it.

"I usually ate alone like everyday back at home... It could get very lonely sometimes." Luz said as she finished her meal. "There were times I didn't even eat at all... So it's good to have someone to share breakfast with once in a while. Thank you, Amity."

"Oh, you don't need to thank me." Amity didn't find that new information of Luz world very pleasant. "I would always eat with you, no exceptions."

They smilled at each other, but their smiles said different things: Amity was trying to reassure the human, but Luz seemed unmotivated again, her smile was sad and felt forced. The witch thought it was better not to keep talking about that subject, so that Luz wouldn't get depressed. After taking the tray back down to the kitchen it was time to get to work and take care of all of Luz messy burns, but not before taking Webster from Luz tousled hair.

"Webster, its time to wake up. Chop chop. Luz doesn't need your aura anymore." Amity placed her hands on her waist and complained at the palisman that was still pretending to sleep.

 _'That lucky bastard.'_ she thought as she saw the palisman snuggle Luz hair for a bit, getting up moments later. She opened the door, her palisman took the hint and left, leaving them alone.

Despite being a bit annoyed, Luz reluctantly agreed to take her clothes off or in this case letting Amity take her clothes off since she couldn't move much without being in pain.

The witch felt completely overwhelmed at the sight of Luz showing skin. This time she was self conscious and looked her straight in the eyes as she took her pants off which turned things much more awkward.

She was so embarassed she couldn't keep eye contact and she could bet Luz was slightly blushing too.

_'What has gotten into me...'_

"You don't need to do this, you know..." Luz broke Amity's thoughts as she took her extra large shirt off.

"Actually I do need to do this and I want to do it." Amity knew exactly why Luz was acting so defensive and afraid of showing her body. Her back had 3 scars printed in it. Amity shakily touched her back as soft as she could, she felt Luz shiver under her touch.

Thankfully her burns were almost inexistent on her back, so touching the scars wasn't going to hurt her.

She summoned a small blue flask, and made another circle so that the slimy mixture would rub itself in her back, making the human flinch at how cold it felt on her skin. The blueish medicine soon disappeared between sparkles as it was absorved by Luz body.

"You can lay down for a while now. I need to take care of your worst wound."

Luz did as she was told and waited as Amity took her old bandages off, rubbing a few more of the blue medicine on her injured spot. This time Luz cringed in pain.

"I know this hurts, but I need to do this, okay Luz? You're brave, you can handle this." Amity tried to look convincing, but she herself knew the wound was pretty bad and quite deep. With the help of healing stickers Luz might be able to move more freely in a few days, instead of weeks if she was in the human realm, so that was a good thing.

She could hardly tolerate Luz whimpering, she hated to see her suffer. After a few agonizing long minutes she finally stopped, bandaging her abdomen with clean and new white bandages. Sticking two healing stickers above them afterwards. Luz was panting like she had just finished running the marathon. Her body was hot from the pain, so Amity let her relax a bit before continuing the healing process.

"Do you... want to talk about your back?" She asked after questioning herself a few times if she should touch such matter or not.

"I..." Luz hesitated for a bit, sighing at all the bad memories she had stuck in her head and body as they came to life in that exact moment. "Would you even believe me?" She struggled to get to a sitting position and stared emptily at the bed.

Amity narrowed her eyes at such question, rapidly sitting in front of Luz, touching her caringly in the face.

"I would always believe you, Luz. And this is serious. How did you get those scars? It looks like a demon ripped your back open." She tilted her head worried about what might have hurt Luz in the past.

"That's funny of you to ask... He sure does look and act like a demon... Or better yet, he is worse than demons, at least those have cute little paws..." Amity heard Luz laugh at her own morbid words, her out of place reaction scared the witchling for a while.

"Luz? Who is this 'he'?!" Nothing the human said was making any sense. Who could have hurt the most special girl she ever met?

"My step dad, okay? Happy?"

"He beat you?"

"Once... Plus all the manipulation, lying and verbal attacks." She replied as she counted with her fingers. She was acting so neutral it was unreal.

Amity couldn't believe what she was hearing. She didn't even know Luz had a step dad, since the only person she talked about was her mom. But if he did this as Luz claims to be true, no wonder she wouldn't mention the disgusting man.

"He got together with my mom for a few years now. When it was summer time, I finally would have the chance to leave them and be in peace, I was so thrilled to know I would see all my real friends again, but then all the thoughts of the things I messed up would get to me..." Luz tried to keep her fake smile in place but failed. Tears ran down her pale wounded face, that Amity couldn't bare to see them.

She couldn't stand seeing Luz so broken, it was just too unbearable. The memory of the time she disappointed Luz two years ago slapped her in the face. She had broken the human even more, she didn't leave the Boiling Isles simply because of her, it had been a culmination of suffering.

"And I... I was also violent to you that day... I probably reminded you of that fool... I feel even worse now. Forgive me, Luz..." She touched Luz forehead with her own and closed her eyes. She was praying for that day to be erased from both their lives, when suddenly the image of the emperor filled her mind.

_'You're a guard now. You can't show weakness. You must fulfill your duty and stop feeling'_

Luz was caught of guard by her affection, but even more at her sudden distancing from her right after.

"It's okay, Amity. It's in the past."

"Just because it is in the past doesn't mean it is forgiven or forgotten, sometimes it even makes things worse." She was angry now, Luz saw that by the harsh way she took the bandage from her right hand, it didn't hurt her though. The human couldn't tell what had angered her.

"And this? Why do you have glyphs in your hands?"  
Amity inspected both sides of her right hand. There was a plant glyph in it. "Was I one of the responsible that lead you to this?" She asked as she knew her left hand contained an abomination glyph in it too. She had her head down and Luz felt water fall on her palm, it stinged a bit, since the burn was still recent.

"I don't want to get into a lot of details... But I was in a very bad shape and my mental health wasn't the best, it still isn't..." Luz whispered the last bit, which Amity couldn't hear. "But let me tell you that at the very least I did one of them, because forgetting you proved to be a hard task.

Amity rapidly looked at Luz, her eyes were shining like two caramels, a lot of thoughts went through her mind after that.

_'She wanted to forget me? That means she really liked me too... But... Oh... She tried to forget me... And probably did... I am not important for her as she is for me... At least not anymore...'_

The realization that she was in Luz past hit her, the witch felt a huge pain in her chest, she didn't feel that in a long time, she felt bitter and lonely. What Luz said was sinking in and the information was without a doubt hard to swallow. She let her hand go, breaking eye contact with Luz and turning herself to the side. How could someone feel so devastated so fast?

"I guess some things are worth forgetting..."

Luz noticed she had hurt Amity, but didn't know how to fix it so instead of saying anything to worsen the situation, she didn't say a word. After all Luz Noceda was known for saying awkward things.

They were in silence for a few moments and in that time the atmosphere was very tense, the birds chirped outside and Luz could hear Edric talking with Webster downstairs.

She also knew some of her burns still needed care, so eventually Amity would have to face her again. She looked at her right hand, the glyph was still freshly printed into her skin, it didn't hurt though, it just felt numb.

"Do the glyphs at least work?" Amity asked looking at her from the corner of the eye.

"Well..." Luz touched the bed sheet next to her and closed her eyes, focusing her attention on her hand and the glyph. "Let's find out." She slightly pressed her palm against the fabric and in mere seconds it started to glow.

This caught Amity's attention, making her look at what Luz was trying to do. Luz growled a bit at the sensation the glyph was making her feel, it stung a little and also felt funny but it had been worth it, because under her hand was a small flower, gaining form until it had grown into a fully grown orchid. The human picked the flower up, handing it over to Amity, who was delighted at the gesture.

"Just like this flower from my realm, I hope that our friendship can rebloom. Sorry if I mess up most of the time." Luz scratched her head, feeling awkward with a flower in her hand like that.

Luz started to fear that Amity wouldn't take it, she wasn't moving and her face didn't say much that could comfort her. After all that flower meant that she hadn't any hard feelings. Was Amity still mad that she left? Maybe she wasn't going to forgive her.

"I would like that a lot." She said as she took the flower away from Luz, placing it behind her ear. "Thanks for the flower, Luz. It's beautiful."

"Oh, huh, no big deal, after all any little witch could do this spell, its nothing special."

"You're special enough for me." Amity mumbled as she placed a lock of hair behind her ear.

"What?"

"Nothing! I just said that I should take care of your other burns!" Amity panicked, getting up from the bed the fastest possible.

"Oh! Yes please! It is getting a bit chilly here." She smilled dorkly at Amity. It was the smile that had always attracted her from the beginning.

After spending a few more minutes rubbing the healing mixture and bandaging, it was time for Amity to get dressed for work, it would be another busy day as an emperor guard. She could see the smile from Luz face fade. The human wasn't very happy with that, she still wasn't used to the idea that Amity was on the emperor's side. She even tried to convince Amity not to go, but she couldn't stay with her even if she wanted that more than anything in the Isles.

"It will just be for a few hours. I'll be back before you know it. Edric will also be here today to take care of you!"

"Oh, okay... But it will be so boring to stay here without doing anything..." She pouted and crossed her arms, pretending to be super angry at Amity, but both knew it was a joke.

"Fine... You know what, I will let Webster stay with you, just for today!" She petted her palisman in the head, that soon left her shoulder to fly towards Luz hair.

"Looks like he likes your hair just too much, huh?"

"Admit it, he is not the only one." Luz had a smug look in her face, she was teasing Amity and she loved it. It also made her feel utterly embarassed. The witch laughed shily and coughed, clearing her throat to say her goodbyes.

"Yeah... Just try not to have too much fun with my palisman, I don't want a scratch on his ancient white wood, okay?"

"Sure. Don't worry Amity. I'll treat him like the son I never had." She admitted as Webster rubbed is tiny face on hers in approval.

"This was definitely a bad decision..." Amity said as she closed the door.

"No returns allowed!" She heard the girl shout from the other side of the door, which Amity couldn't help but smirk at.

When she got downstairs she told her brother to help Luz with anything she needs. He didn't mind, after all it was his day off. As she was about to leave the house his brother made an illusion of her.

"Well, you could always stay here with Luz, while my illusion would do your boring job, what do you say? You would be a full day with Luz the human." He teased her sister and not only him, even his illusion was making gun fingers at her and winking.

"Huh. Okay. No. Stop. There's no way I would let one of your silly illusions take my place. My illusion would end up making a scene.

"You already do that all by yourself, my illusion is just copying you and it copies you good, Mittens."

Amity had enough, and waved her hand on the illusion, puffing it.

"My illusion! My precious illusion! She was so young!"

She was annoyed at how his sibling was mourning an illusion he just created a few seconds ago.

"Edric, you can quit the act." She said as she placed her arm on his shoulder. "I know you want everything to be what it was, but it ain't. I'm lucky enough for being Luz friend. Now if you excuse me, I have work to do. See you later."

His brother looked at her sympathetically, he really wanted everything to be fine and normal again, but even if he tried hard, it didn't work.

"See you, Mittens!" He closed the door and once again Amity was making her normal routine that consisted in existing in a world that hated you for your job. She summoned the flower Luz gave her earlier, it was inside a pink bubble.

_'I will cherish this. I'll prove I can make it up to you and anyone that tries to hurt you ever again will have to answer to me. I'll make them pay.'_


	7. The Oath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another big chapter, I don't know what's happening, my chapters got longer all of a sudden. I still hope you can enjoy it even if it has a lot of words.  
> Also this chapter focus more on developing Edric's character so I hope that doesn't make you not read it.
> 
> THANKS FOR READING AND FOR ALL THE SUPPORT!
> 
> Don't forget to follow me on instagram to be updated about fanart and the fanfic.  
> Instagram: @diana__cinnamon

A few days passed, they went by really slowly for Luz though, she had been stuck in Amity's house from the day she got taken there, not that it was a bad thing, she enjoyed being there.

Resting all day turned out to get boring very fast. Of course she could watch something on Amity's crystal ball, but mostly there were only cheesy soap operas, so her frustration began to increase. Soap operas were equally unsufferable in both realms no doubt.

There was even a channel focused on petrifications and coven related propaganda, according to Edric it was something recent.

Apparently the Emperor ordered to petrify all the wild witches that were captured, he didn't want them to fill up the comformatorium. Last time Luz was in the Boiling Isles there wasn't as many wild witches like now. That was something surprisingly new and bad. Even though the boilanders were trying to comfront the Emperor and make a stand, they ended up being silenced, all getting the same fatal fate that was getting petrified.

That made her think about Eda. Was she okay? Was King feeling okay? Luz needed to know.

There was so much going on inside her head, a part of her wanted to take the staff she stole from the comformatorium and leave before she gets too attached to the Blights again, the other part, the most logical one told her to stay, she didn't have a place to go and she couldn't leave even if she tried anyways.

_'Coming to the Boiling Isles without any supplies or a place to go was a bad idea... What will I do now? I can't just stay with Eda... not after leaving them like I did.'_

Luz couldn't go back to the human realm either, her mother was probably trying to find her in each and every corner possible by now and there was no chance she would go back to her step dad. Her phone has been turned off since she left, it was more than certain that it would be exploding with phone calls.

Luz feared this, feared the look on her mom's face, feared her step dad in every way possible. What if he hurt her mom?  
But Luz didn't have the strength to do anything, she would get paralyzed with fear, so she just hoped he wouldn't touch a single of her mom's hair.

Edric entered the room with a wicked grin in his face, he brought a few boxes with him. That caught Luz attention, finally something that could luckily distract her from her terrifying thoughts.

"Okay so I found some games we could play today, we have Hexes Hold'em, Demonic Bingo and some Witch's Apprentice Chess which is an easier version basically for kids of the Witch's Chess, so I think you'll manage Luz." The older Blight eagerly showed her all the games one by one after placing them on Amity's desk.

The human never learned how to play any of those games while she was in the Boiling Isles, definitely winning wasn't going to be on her side.

"That's nice of you Edric, but I think I'll pass." Luz forced a smile, looking away in the window's direction. She wanted to go outside, but Amity made her promise that she wouldn't leave. The latina could pretty much walk again with no problem. Her body still ached, but she was fine, Amity should be able to see that.

Luz understood her side though, after all she told the witch she wanted to leave while still injured, no surprise that the young Blight would panic every day she had to go to work.

"Cheer up Luz! I'm here with you today, we can have some real fun." He said as an illusion of himself appeared. They started playing the card game. The cards were fighting each other on top of the bed. "This is fun because either way I win!"

Making illusions surely was useful for when you felt lonely, which Luz felt a big part of the time.

"What?!" Edric's shocked voice interrupted Luz line of thought. "I lost to an illusion? Well it's still the cool me, but I wasn't expecting this." Edric looked down in defeat, as his cards were magically incinerated. "Oh man..."

Luz couldn't resist letting out a laugh, hiding her mouth behind her hand, this caught Edric's attention.

"Do you feel cold or something like that? You're wearing gloves indoors." He was honestly curious, maybe it was a human thing.

"Oh! I just like to wear gloves... You know, for the cool vibes." She tried to look cool, by making a peace sign with her fingers. Luz wasn't the best coming up with lies when caught off guard. She didn't want people to know she hurt herself before, they could think she was weirder than usual or even worse, they could think she was out of her mind, she wanted none of that.

Edric didn't insist with more questions, Luz was certain he believed her, which was good. Being different had its advantages, people ended up thinking it was a human habit, therefore not asking many questions.

She was grateful that Amity lend her a pair of fingerless gloves to replace her damaged old ones. It was... Very thoughtful of her.

Edric tried to get the human into playing any of the games he had displayed, but to no avail, the girl simply wasn't in the mood to learn the demonic rules.

"I just would like to breath some fresh air, you know?" Luz sighed with her eyes closed, resting her head against the headboard of the bed.

"Why didn't you say so? We can do that!" Edric got up from the bed not even trying to hide his enthusiasm.

"What? I can't go." she replies, earning a little bit of confusion from the older Blight.

"Aren't you feeling better? You can move by now."

"Amity made me agree with a oath, I can't leave the house."

Edric didn't react for a few seconds, burst out laughing for a while, when he finally calmed down he looked at Luz with a warm little grin on his face.

"You're so innocent, Luz. Amity just pretended, that oath was just so she would feel relieved when leaving you alone, that way she could be sure you wouldn't try it if you saw her casting it."

"Why would she lie?"

"Well it wasn't entirely a lie. You can only leave the house with a companion, you have me!"

Luz looked puzzled, it was obvious if Amity told her the condition of the oath that she would ask Edric for help the first day she could, but why not just be upfront about it?

"So are we going or are we going?"

When Luz heard the invite she practically jolted out of Amity's bed with a wide grin on her face, forgetting completely about her wounded abdomen, which made her wince at the pain and lose a bit of balance. Edric lended her a hand, helping her recompose herself. Even though the wound was almost healed it still hurt, but was bearable at this point.

"You probably will need other clothes." Edric started rubbing his chin, trying to think about a solution.

Luz didn't want to go outside with sleeping clothes either and Amity's clothes weren't her style at all.

"I know! Come with me!" The witch gestured with his hand as he rushed to the door. Luz followed him with an inquiring look as they got closer to what Luz could assume to be Edric's bedroom. The room was nice but definitely more messy than Amity's. Edric told her to close the door as he went to get something from inside his wardrobe.

As she waited Luz noticed the picture of a girl standing on his bedside table. It had a very fancy but weird frame with three headed dogs around it. The girl had two pink curly horns, brown fluffy hair and the cutest of freckles, she was also wearing a healing track uniform.

"Who is this girl?" Luz asked, pointing at the girl in question.

Edric stopped what he was doing to see what she was refering to.

"Oh that's... Bona. She's a friend of mine."

Luz raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"She's your friend and you keep a picture of her so close to you? You sure about that?" Luz had her arms crossed now and was looking mischievously at him. She remembered that name being mentioned before. Amity claimed they liked each other.

"Yes..." Edric bluntly admits. "We are only friends and probably won't be more than that, but I'm thankful for our friendship." He turned his face to the wardrobe again, trying to find that idea of his.

Luz noticed the sadness on is voice. Why couldn't they be together if they were into each other? It just didn't make sense to her. She didn't want to harm his feelings more so she simply waited.

After a while she heard him shout a "there you are!" from inside the closet. Showing her a very weird hairy hat that soon opened its big eyes and started to bark.

It was the size of a beanie, had a lot of teeth, two cute little ears and four little paws, the front limbs were just to short that it was almost impossible for it to move on its own.

"What is that thing?!" Luz wasn't used to see demons anymore, so se was delighted by the weirdness of the creature and a bit concerned about its utility.

"This is gluto. He is an illusory demon hat. Well... He is an illusory demon at least. We witches kinda made him work as a hat, since they can't do much by themselves and would die without our support otherwise." He petted the creature on what was supposed to be its back. "He is my work partner."

The Boiling Isles never stopped surprising her.

"So I assume I have to "wear" him?" She asked, feeling a bit uneasy about all that.

"You assume right, my fellow human!" As he finished saying this, he stuck Gluto on top of Luz head, that soon got comfy and grabbed her with her warm mouth, making the girl flinch at the disgusting sensation.

"You probably will want to wash your head after."

 _'It's just a hat... It's a normal hat Luz, it will not eat you!'_ she tried to keep calm but her head felt so warm and moist it was almost impossible to focus on anything else. She couldn't believe Edric felt this on a regular basis.

"Tell me that he doesn't eat heads by accident?!" Luz touched one of his paws, at least they were fluffy.

"Of course not silly!" He went to the closet again, bringing a bag with him. He opened it, taking out small ripped pieces of clothing of various colors. "He eats cloth like any other illusory demon!"

He inserted the tip of one of the pieces in Gluto's mouth and soon it disappeared as he sucked and swallowed it. Luz couldn't understand how it worked.  
He didn't chew it, it simply vanished inside him. She didn't really want to try finding a logical explanation for it, better just go with the flow.

"You just have to think about what you want to wear and he will automatically read your mind and mimic the clothes. It's a pretty easy way for lazy people not to get changed." He laughed out loud at the thought of some boilanders that would literally wear the same clothes for days.

Luz couldn't chicken out at that point, her head was already inside the beast's mouth and she didn't want to disappoint Edric, so she did as he suggested and thought about some nice human clothes.

"Very good choice! Those look pretty good on you. I bet my little sister would find them captivating as well." He winked at her and Luz couldn't help it but redden in the face a little. She tried to shrug it off.

As they were almost ready to leave, Luz remembered that she didn't have a mask to use. She didn't want people to recognize her.  
Edric casted an illusion, creating a temporary mask that would do the trick.

They finally went outside, Luz eyes unconsciously fluttered with the brightness of the sun, she had spent too much time indoors that her eyes weren't used to it anymore. The girl couldn't resist taking a deep breath, filling her lungs with the freshness of a new day.

A circle around her right hand showed up and disappeared right after as they got far from the house, but nothing happened meaning everything was in check. The Blight brother reassured her by telling her that as long as she left with him, the oath wouldn't have any effect on her.

Edric decided to take Luz to the market, she walked a bit slower than him because of her pain, so they took a little longer getting there. That place was always full of costumers, which meant that people would pay less attention to her, but for some reason she couldn't stop being too self conscious about being a human. They couldn't see her ears because of Gluto so she should be fine.

"Luz loosen up a little will you? It's not like Mittens is here to arrest you or anything." Edric joked, clearly noticing that Luz was tense about something.

"I kinda feel like I shouldn't be betraying her trust. She thinks I'm resting at your house. What if she sees us here?"

"Oh don't worry. At this hour she's probably pratolling the comformatorium. There's no chance she will be here."

They walked a bit more, and the deeper they got into the market the unhappier, even tense the civilians looked. The market didn't radiate the same joyful aura as when Luz got here the very first time.

Edric explained her that people were afraid of the Emperor's coven and the officers even. They couldn't rely on them, because they weren't trustworthy.

Everyone needed to behave in a predetermined way and people were getting tired of that, but no one had the courage to stand up against Emperor Belos laws, most had their magic sealed so their magic was weak and who defied his authority had to be on the run or was made captive.

Things got very complicated as the years went by, the number of wild witches increased even more after every school in the Isles accepted the mixing of different tracks. When students graduated they wanted their freedom but their potential had to be sealed away because the almighty emperor said so and a big part of them refused. Luz couldn't stop feeling guilty for it after all she had been one of the first to be able to study a big variety of tracks.

She also couldn't imagine how Amity felt, being part of that coven had been her dream, but she was hated by her own kind. The thought about the oath came to her mind again.

"Why is Amity so reluctant with letting me go? I'm pretty much a burden for you both." Luz faced the ground ashamed of her intrusion in their lives. "She probably hates me for leaving her in the past..."

"Oh! You got it all wrong Luz. She just doesn't want you to leave us like you did two years ago. It really affected her." He sat on the nearest sidewalk and gestured Luz to do the same. "You know... Emira and I weren't very good siblings back then... We even joked about your relationship being the fastest breakup ever seen in the Isles. Amity didn't talk to us for weeks." He scratched his head in complete shame of their imature jokes.

"Oh... Me leaving her really had that big of an impact on her... Huh?" Luz asked rethorically. "I had no idea."

Luz listened carefully to everything Edric had to say about him and Amity. It seemed he really needed to vent about his life. He didn't mention Emira during all the conversation so she took the first step.

"You and Emira used to be together all the time. What happened? I never saw her back at home either."

"Emira? Well she has a whole Illusion coven to lead... She left me for the coven. We would be unstoppable together, but she claimed I would slow her down." Luz saw his pointy ears go down as he talked about her sister.

"I'm happy for her though, getting to lead a coven at such a young age is a great achievement."

"Sorry Edric. I shouldn't have asked about her..." Luz squeezed his shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"You didn't know. It's okay."

They kept talking for a while until he started talking about Amity once again.

"She still supports Eda financially even though our parents don't give her money anymore..." Amity really had become someone selfless, it was impressive how she still cared for Eda even after Luz left. She didn't need to do it, but still did. Amity was such a caring witch... And didn't deserve the parents she had.

"Why is that? She joined the Emperor's coven like they wanted. Aren't they satisfied?" She couldn't believe that the monstrosities Amity called parents had the audacity of not giving what was hers by right.

"Huh... Right... That's kinda personal to Amity so you probably shouldn't ask her about it." He was trying to shrug the subject away.

"Well I'm asking you, not her."

"Forget I said this."

Luz noticed Edric had probably spilled the beans about something he shouldn't have.

"All you need to know is that Mittens missed you every day, no exceptions." He was trying to enlighten the girl as he gestured a green slimy vendor nearby to sell him two Not Dogs. The vendor handed him the food as he summoned the money on his cart. "Thank you kind sir!"  
He handed her one Not Dog, but Luz declined in disgust.

"More for me." She couldn't understand how people liked that thing. It was a big spider on a hot dog bun. How messed up could it be to eat spiders... But something was more present in her mind than the image of Edric eating bugs.

 _'Amity missed me everyday?'_ Thinking about that was making her feel strongly bubbly inside, she didn't know why, or pretended not to know why.

"She tried to miss you less by training harder to become a guard. You were her only emotional support besides her family after all and I can't really say our parents were good at it, so she had a lot to bear all on her own."

"What did you just say?"

Edric repeated with his mouth full of bread.

"I said that you were her only emotional support besides us."

That made something click inside her. She had been so stupid by running away. They both suffered twice as much when apart. They were stronger and happier together.

"We need to go back." She got up as normally as possible for someone in her condition.

"I shouldn't have left the bed, but maybe it was for the better because if I didn't you wouldn't tell me all this."

"I always had the intention of telling you these things. Mittens can't scream her feelings so I'll do it for her."

"You should do the same with Bona, you know?"

Edric frowned crossing his arms defensibly. Talking about Bona really was a sensible topic for him. "Don't be like Amity, let your heart scream, Edric!"

Luz started running back towards the Blight's house, Edric didn't expect this so he got left behind for a while. Her body hurt like crazy, but she had to go back.

Leaving Amity wasn't an option anymore. She couldn't do the same again. She had to be her friend, so she was going to stay at their house like she promised to begin with.

When they got home, the house was reasonably quiet, so Luz could finally breath in relief, everything seemed normal, Edric on the other hand was having a hard time breathing, he wasn't used to run for so long. His athlete days were long gone.

"I really need a cup of water." As they entered the kitchen they were greeted by an upset Amity. She was sat on a chair, shaking her leg impatiently. She had Luz staff on her left hand.

"Oh Mittens...! You're... back! Didn't know you would be home this early..." Edric rubbed his neck and looked off to the side, trying to keep neutral, but both him and Luz stood with stone legs.

"Where have you been? I had to leave an illusory clone in my place just so I could get here as soon as possible!"

"How did you know?" Luz asked as her face started burning from the stress. Everything seemed to be crumbling down in her head.

"The magical circle that appeared when you left. I didn't simply cast the oath, I also made a spell that would let me know if you tried to leave."

"You really thought about everything didn't you little sister? Always a step ahead..."

"Oh, quit it Edric. I thought you helped Luz leave or something, but then I noticed she forgot the staff, so that couldn't be it."

"I wouldn't leave without telling you Amity." Luz tried to calm her down, but failed.

"Yes I know Luz. You always tell me when you will abandon me...  
Neither of you thought about this did you? Luz is wanted by my coven and you two decide to go for a walk outside like it was nothing?"

Luz couldn't believe she was still wanted, she had done nothing wrong. She saved Eda, did what was right and now she had a bounty on her head...

"Luz just wanted to breathe some fresh air Amity. Don't make a big deal about this." Her brother was trying to do some damage control, but Amity didn't seem to care. "She wore a disguise and everything."

"Could you not interrupt Edric? This is serious." Her face showed no emotions besides anger and coldness.  
She waited for Luz to be at her best so she could make the big question that was bothering her since the human ran away from the comformatorium, but apparently she was already fine. No need to wait any longer.

"Why did you steal this staff, Noceda? What's so special about it? And most importantly, how did you know there existed one in the contraband room in the first place?"

Edric was very surprised that Luz had the courage to invade the comformatorium on her own. She was definitely cooler than he thought.

Luz didn't reply, she really didn't know how to.

"I can't tell you Amity... Why does it even matter?"

"Because you stole it from the emperor. You know, the witch that rules everything and everyone?" Amity opened her arms in an exaggerated manner to get her point across.

"I don't care about the emperor Amity. If you think I'll give you those informations so you can just tell Belos, forget it." Luz wasn't liking the way Amity looked at her. She was interrogating her like she was some type of criminal... Well, she did steal...

_'Damn it Amity has all the right to be pissed at me...'_

"Amity just relax. Luz must have her reasons..." Her brother tried to approach her sister but was pushed away.

"You don't understand do you? I want you to be out of harms way and this is how you thank me?"

_'It's your duty. Duty above everything. Don't fail me Blight. That insect means nothing to you'_

There they were, those thoughts again ringing in her head.

Amity let the staff fall to the ground, her hand felt numb all of a sudden.

 _'Not again...'_ The witch turned her back at them, taking her right hand to her face. She was seeing everything blurry and couldn't feel her hand.

Edric and Luz stared worriedly at each other in silence, Amity was acting so out of character, that definitely something was bothering her. She tried to leave the room but fell in the process.

"Damn it!"

Luz rushed in her direction and tried to get her up, but was surprised by a shaky circle made by Amity. She then grabbed Luz hand, cancelling the oath created days ago.

"You can leave even if you aren't completely healed. I won't stop you anymore."

"That's exactly what I wanted to tell you! I changed my mind! I will stay for as long as you both want me here. I'm your friend."

"Friend..." That word really hurt. Why did it hurt so bad?

'See? You mean nothing to her.'

Amity shook her head trying to cease the voices in her brain.

"Shut up..."

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

"N... No, it's... Nothing, Luz. I just... I apologize. I wasn't being myself."

"It's fine... Amity. Everyone has a bad day." The witchling laid her head on the human's shoulder, which surprised the girl more than she expected. She frooze completely, looking in Edric's direction in hopes of finding some support, but just seeing the guy cheering for them with his thumbs up. Luz didn't know what was going on but she lingered over that moment.

"Ladies. I don't want to destroy your special moment, but you should probably get up from the hard cold floor."

"R... Right!" Luz stuttered as she tried to get up, but Amity didn't move. "Amity?" The green haired girl kept her eyes shut, not making a single move.

"She died on me? Oh god I killed her!"

"I'm pretty sure she's just sleeping." Edric comfirmed as he saw her sister's lips moving slightly.

Her job as a guard really took a lot out of her.  
Luz didn't know what happened for Amity to act like she did, but the most important in that moment was taking her to bed. Edric offered to carry her little sister upstairs. Luz stayed behind, observing the brown staff forgotten on the floor. She picked it up, moving a finger from top to bottom, feeling the wood that radiated power just from the simple touch.

_'I think I should trust her... Her job doesn't define her after all...'_

A few hours later Amity woke up on her bed, her body didn't feel very comfortable, because she was still wearing her uniform. Everything was dark in the room but for a small light ball above her head. Luz was next to her in the bed, playing with a small abomination she created with her left hand. Amity got taken back when seeing that the girl she cared so deeply about was so close to her, on HER bed WITH her, that she almost fell off the bed.

"Hey Amity. You woke up. "Luz slapped the sheets, making the abomination disappear. "Did I move a lot or something? Sorry I just needed to find something to distract myself with. I didn't want to sleep yet."

"Why are we both on the same bed?" The witch asked turning her body to face the ceiling. She could bet Luz could see the red on her face.

"Edric tried to find a sleeping bag, but he wasn't lucky so I decided I would make you some company for a while, before going to the couch. I washed my hair and we even had dinner together, then I joined you here."

"Edric never knows where he leaves those kind of stuff. He is so unorganized..."

"You're brother is sweet."

Amity couldn't disagree about that, her sibling really cared about them both a lot. She then proceeded to make a circle that rapidly switched her current clothes to sleeping ones. Luz always looked interested at spells like that, it was so useful that she wished she could do them herself.

The witch closed her eyes for a while, trying to suppress her multiple thoughs about Luz and what she said to her before falling asleep.  
Maybe she had overreacted... Luz had all the right to leave if that was her desire even if she hated to let her go...

"Your ears twitch when you sleep. It looks so cute!" Luz blurted out in awe. She couldn't keep that information inside her chest, which made Amity redden even more.

She rushed to hide her ears with her hands and looked away. The human wasn't making things any easier. All she didn't need now was flirty compliments. Wait? Was Luz flirting? With her?

"Did I embarass you? Sorry. I was just trying to lighten up the tension between us." The human turned her body to the ceiling's direction too. She rested her hands on top of her stomach. "I'm so weird..."

Amity was silent for a while, but soon decided to face the human girl she so much adored.

"You're perfect as you are."

"Really?" Luz stared into Amity's eyes, she was sure the human could see right through them. Her smile really comforted her.

"Y... Yes. For me at least." Amity looked down in desperation. She didn't know how to make that moment less awkward.

"Right... Hum. After thinking for a while I decided to tell you about the staff, Amity. Sorry if I seemed so hesitant towards you earlier. I still don't like the idea of you being on the enemy's side..."

"It's just work. Nothing more." The youngest Blight sure was surprised at Luz sudden change of mind. She thought Luz wouldn't open to her at all.

"Well... I can't tell you much, but..."

Amity heard everything attentively, everything Luz said surely aroused her curiosity. Apparently an old lady in the night market started nattering with the human, trying to sell her some weapons from her Sworded Affairs shop. Of course Luz didn't have any snails to spare, she had gotten to the Boilings Isles with not a single snail in her pocket.

Knowing that, the old witch gave her the information that she could find a powerful staff in the comformatorium that belonged to none the less, to a human. Amity had no idea humans had staffs before. She didn't even know there was any humans in the Isles in the past.

"So the old lady gave me a mask and wished me good luck. That's basically how you found me. I went there as sneaky as I could but I guess it wasn't enough. At least I got the staff though. I'm just missing a Palisman now."

"Interesting... I should investigate. This woman knows more than us guards." Amity rubbed her chin, trying to find something that could connect the dots.

"Amity no... I just told you because I trust you. I don't want you to go after this old lady. Let her be."

Luz really wanted this to be forgotten, well it didn't hurt anyone. None of her superiors noticed the robbery or the missing staff, so she could just let it pass this time.

"Fine." Amity mumbled, still tired after the afternoon events. She was too tired to care. "Let's just sleep now."

"Sure! I'll let you rest." The human was getting up to go sleep on the couch downstairs. So when the young witch saw her leaving an empty space next to her, she couldn't control her body, grabbing Luz right wrist.

"No... Stay!" Luz looked as surprised as Amity. "I mean... My bed is big enough for both of us, and the couch isn't that soft." She tried to find excuses for Luz to stay. Was the human girl blushing? Was Amity seeing things? Maybe the lack of light in the room wasn't helping.

"I would love to stay." As she said this she jumped onto the bed next to Amity and chuckled. Those reactions always caught the witchling out of guard, making her have ridiculous reactions.

"It's like a slumber party, but just the two of us! Alone!"

_'Oh god... I won't survive this night...'_

"S... Sure Luz. Hum... Good night." She turned her back to Luz. She wanted to disappear in that moment, how embarassing.

"Good night!"

The girl felt a pat on the back, which gave her shivers down her spine. This human drove her crazy. After that she heard a pop sound and saw the room go blank.

They were really going to sleep together... Amity hid her face behind her hands, she was too flustered to even think about sleeping.

_'I shouldn't be doing this... We are just friends... What's gotten into me...'_


	8. Inner Demons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SELF-HARM and BULLYING WARNING (it's not very graphical but I still think its best to warn you) so if you think you might get triggered don't read it!  
> \---------------------------------------------------  
> Good morning awesome readers! I hope you're really enjoying where my story is going. After this chapter the real plot will begin, sorry if it looks like I'm taking too long to get somewhere.  
> This chapter is basically a summary of what Luz went through in the human realm so you can understand her better.(I got to say that I thought about scraping this chapter. There was not an exact place I could insert it, but then I found this opportunity).  
> Also some of you really wanted to see some flashbacks so here it is!  
> Hope you enjoy!

Luz could feel it. She was definitely much better now. The healing stickers did wonders.

Unfortunately there was a scar in her abdomen to match the ones in her back, and that no magic could erase. It would be another souvenir for her body as she liked to call it. The days were passing surprisingly quickly. Time really did fly when she had fun.

Well she did go to the Boiling Isles to escape from her miserable existence on the human realm after all. Just didn't expect it to make her feel better by being there or to even lead her to meet Amity again. The Isles sure were small.

Luz wished with all her heart that the amazing moments she spent with the Blight siblings were enough to push her crippling fears to the depths of her brain, but guilt consumed her.

She abandoned her mother, just like she did with Amity in the past. Amity had to deal with her parents all by herself while her mother was completely alone with her abusive stepdad. It was really terrifying to think about it. She missed her mom's warm embraces the most.

It was really pathetic when she finally noticed how she kept running away from the people she loved... But it couldn't be helped... her mom liked her boyfriend too much and Amity had to do what her parents expected from her... Luz didn't find other way to breath besides running away. Their life choices had disappointed her, but she couldn't hate any of the two either, it was... complicated...

The words 'coward' screamed in the back of her head everytime she thought of it, never letting her rest.

It was still good to see once familiar faces again though. Amity and Edric had been very supportive and nice towards her, even after she left them so abruply, which was a relief.

She didn't know what she did to deserve such a warm treatment. But the human knew that deep down the witchling still felt bitter for her rough departure. The way she desperately reacted when Edric and Luz left for a walk gave it away.

But she couldn't tell why Amity wanted to be on her side so bad, perhaps the witch wanted to compensate for the years they were apart. There was no chance that Amity could still be interested in her. That had been two years ago... Edric said she missed her everyday, but that happens between good friends with a past like them. Right? Everyone moves on... and Amity wasn't any different...

Luz couldn't deny a weird tension in the air between them, but didn't make a big deal out of it. Her eyes could be tricking her when she thought seeing Amity blush. All in all, she shouldn't get her hopes up. What would a powerful witch like Amity Blight see in a human like her? Amity could find so much better. She probably just found something interesting about her in the past because they were silly kids... Curiosity is very powerful.

She shouldn't fall for her... she couldn't... what if she opened herself to her again and then got stabbed like when they were younger?

_'No... Amity is different now... her job doesn't define the wonderful person she is, Luz... believe in your heart, don't fall to stupid fear. We suffered more when apart... That's what I'm going to focus on."_

Thinking about all this made her shift her gaze from the door of the bedroom to Amity's sleeping bag still laying on the ground, next to the bed.

Thanks to Amity's palisman, she had been able to sleep most part of the nights she spent in the Isles. Nothing could harm her there. Even the dark circles under her eyes started to disappear, result of her calming nights of sleep.

She couldn't complain about having her company during the night either, since they slept on the same bed two days ago that Amity surprisingly decided to join her every night. She relentlessly searched the whole house for the sleeping bag, just to find ripped pieces of it near Gluto. That sneaky little demon had ate it all, which made the youngest Blight completely rage, she even forced her brother to buy another one. If his pet destroyed the house property Edric had to be the one paying for it, not her.

Thinking about that memory made her smirk internally. There was something about seeing Amity angry and acting all bossy that she couldn't help but find captivating, dare say exciting.

_'Okay... I shouldn't be thinking these things about Amity... Geez we just recently accepted to be friends again and here I am almost drooling over her authoritarian stance.'_

Luz decided to get up from the bed and check Amity's shelf. She was too annoyed at her stubborn heart and to some extent, her brain, thinking if she should or shouldn't fall for Amity was nonsense. Jokes on her, she already had and kept denying it.

Maybe a book would catch her interest and distract her. Amity still loved fantasy books just like Luz. The latina could clearly see that by the amount of them in the shelf. And apparently romance books too?  
There was a huge chance she would find something cool to read after all.

"Who would say Amity was a hopeless romantic..." Luz caressed the spine of a few books lovingly as she imagined the witch reading them before going to bed.

A title caught her attention in the middle of so many words and colorful book spines. One that hit her on a personal level.

 _"A Mistake of a Daughter"_ Luz did a double take, rubbing her eyes before looking at the title again.

Her hand reached forwards towards the book, taking it from the shelf. She couldn't believe that title was right.

 _"A Cupcake of a Daughter"_ was the real title after all, Luz was seeing things where they didn't exist. Not giving any news to her mom was eating her alive.

 _'I really am a mistake.'_ she thought as she placed the book where it had previously been.  
She crossed her arms, the thirst for finding something juicy to read disappeared quickly after the title incident. She walked around the room, she could go downstairs to watch some TV or go for a walk... But at the same time she didn't want to do anything. Her gaze fell on Amity's desk, where her phone was getting dusty of the lack of usage.

She headed towards the desk where it had been resting all these days. She fixed her gaze on the cursed object, ran a finger through her messy hair and sighed softly at the thoughts of her mom being worried sick about her disappearance.

Luz gingerly grabbed her phone. Thinking about all the possible outcomes of turning it back on. For a second, she had the urge to give up, but ended up pressing the button that soon made the black screen light up, she inserted the code, giving her the opportunity to see the wallpaper she picked for it months ago. It was a photo of her mom hugging her from behind. That really brought back memories.

After a while of checking her phone, a few notifications started poping up, spamming the phone, which made it function a little slower. Her mom called more than 20 times, and there where some messages too. Even her stepdad called her. Of course he had to do his part of the worried stepdad...

"What have I done..." She pressed the first message.

"Luz? Mija? Why don't you answer the phone?" The date said it had been sent the same day she ran away. Her mom had probably waited for her to come back home from school but eventually she never showed up.

 _'I'm not reading this anymore...'_ Luz slid the phone across the table, turning her back to it.  
It started ringing not long after, which startled the human, she let out a quick yelp as she turned her body to face the incoming sound.

Her body was completely shaking. She almost forgot to breathe when seeing her mom's picture show up in the screen. She started to panic, tucking her arms into her chest.  
She battled internally to answer the phone, but couldn't do it.

"Maybe it's better this way... It stopped ringing anyways..." But when the girl was beginning to sigh in relief it ringed once more. This time it was a video call.

"Maldición!"

She couldn't back down now. Her mom now knew she had turned her phone on. She picked it up, swallowing down a shaky breath before pressing the green button.

Her mom's face was too close to the screen, but she soon positioned herself correctly in a visible way for Luz. The woman looked visibly tired and worried.

"Mija? Are you okay? Where are you?!" Luz knew her mom was making a huge effort not to cry, her voice gave it away.

"Hello... Mami. I'm fine. I'm somewhere safe." She felt awfully ashamed. Nothing she could say would ease her mom's pain.

"How are you fine?! Safe? Aren't you safer at home sweetheart?You don't show up for days. What's the meaning of this?!"

"I just had to leave for a while..."

"What did you do Luz? The principal of your school called me saying you got into a fight with a girl of your class? And then you simply vanished from the school."

"I... That girl deserved it mami."

"Just come back home mija... We can fix this together. Whatever your problems might be, we can help you."

"We?" The human asked skeptically.

Her stepdad showed up at the phone, making several alarm bells go off in Luz’s head. He was judging her in silence, as he stared at her in a deadpan manner.

"Hey kid. What if you quit that tantrum and come back home? The officers are trying to find you for days."

She couldn't find any words. They just ended up spending a few moments in uncomfortable silence.

"Miss Noceda?"

Luz didn't recognize the voice, but it surely belonged to an old man.

"We can't find the coordinates of your daughter. Something is off."

She just saw her mom panicking and crying.  
Unluckily for Luz, her mom had missed work that day. She was trying to find new informations about her whereabouts.

Apparently the cops were trying to understand where her phone was located. Her mom wanted to believe she was at a friend's house, just going through a rebel phase, but after having her phone turned off for so long and the officers not being able to track her down, they were sure she had been kidnapped and someone was messing with the signal.

"I just told you all that I'm fine!" Luz couldn't just tell them that they couldn't catch her signal because she was in another realm. They would think she was completely delusional. No one would believe her, right?

"Luz Noceda. Just try telling us where you are!" The man was comforting her mom by embracing her. "We are so worried about you. We want you back with us!" Her stepdad surely was making his role... What an amazing actor.

Pretending to care about her when in fact he just wanted to see her very very far away. She should be the one hugging her mom, not that man.

"You're a liar!" Luz huffed as she clenched her fists. Making her mom jump from her place.

"I'm not coming back mami... All you need to know is that I'm safe. Nobody took me away."  
She was gritting her teeth now, all that hypocrisy was killing her.

"But Luz! Mija! I can't live not knowing where you are..."

"I'm at the Boiling Isles. I love you mami..." Luz was getting ready to end the video call. She hadn't anything else to lose, they would never find that place.

"Mija, don't end the call, please!"

Her mom could clearly see the pained look on her daughter's face. Boiling Isles? Was that like a fantasy world of her daughter? She never heard about a place like that. She wanted to help her, but didn't know how to do better.  
Perhaps Luz needed this. The woman didn't know what else she could do.

"Luz stop with the games and come back home." Her step dad now demanded for her return, losing his patience. "Your mom is desperate!"

"Cariño, go easy on her. She must have her reasons. I trust her." Her mom showed her a pained smile, she was doing an effort to understand.

"Gracias mami..." Before ending the call she could hear the same authoritarian voice from prior minutes, saying they would try finding a place called Boiling Isles. They would definitely need a demonic miracle to find her.

The girl leaned over the desk as silence filled the room, but the voices were still there screaming in her head.

She couldn't tolerate her stepdad or any other human besides her mother at that point. They were just too distasteful and mean.  
All the bad things she went through these last few years were bound to come out.

At first she thought that having a stepdad would be fun, perhaps with some luck she could even call him dad, but everything went wrong not long after he started living with her mom and her. To make things worse, he even worked at her school as a security guard. So there was no way she wouldn't face him everyday.

Bullying by day, domestic abuse by night.  
Wherever she looked there was always someone trying to make her go down at their hands.  
She never expected the man to be so manipulative and intimidating.

"If you tell your mom any of this you will regret it, kid."

Her chest always raggedly rose and fell when he threatened her or when she heard his steps coming closer to her room. It was so suffocating, even if she wanted to vent at her mother she couldn't, the man was always there... Besides her mom was too busy with her job that they didn't talk much at all.

Scanning every room to identify escape routes everywhere she went became part of her. She even tried to leave Amity's house while badly injured... How crazy was that.

Amity... She needed Amity in that moment... But she was alone that day. Neither of the Blight siblings were back from their respective jobs. She had to manage it all by herself like she always did.

 _'How could that joke of a stepdad still pretend to care about me?!'_ Luz punched the desk with her left hand, hurting her knuckles in the process.

He hit her with a belt once for the titan's sake. Her back ached for weeks, she had to deal  
with trying not to let people see the blood on her clothes, most importantly her mother. If she found out, more pain would come, she was sure of it. She was so conscious about her injury that even when it was finally healed, if someone bumped into her it would make all her senses ring.

 _'Perhaps I deserved the spanking...'_ The girl couldn't stop feeling guilty for her own behaviour and stupid feelings.

The day she made her first glyph poped into her terrified mind, that night she had ran away from her house, stole her stepdad's spare keys and snuck inside the school. Being alone was what she needed the most... No students to mock her and no stepdad to insult her. Finally some peace and quiet... But the harm was done.

Her heart ached too much it was impossible to bear. The pain was too real. That miserable night, she decided to go to the chemistry lab and stay there for a while. The moonlight that hit the windows bathed the desks. It reminded her of Amity Blight and the sweet dance they shared at Grom. How could the witch claim to like her, but right after rub in her face how much she needed to join the Emperor's Coven?! She wanted to forget her, but couldn't.

She noticed the bunsen burners on a corner of the room and had the scariest of ideas. Perhaps if she felt physical pain her emotional one would get muffled.

She took her metal carved abomination glyph made by a neighbor from her backpack, feeling the cold but soft iron with her finger. At least her neighbor was nice.

She wanted some glyph models to decorate her bedroom walls but then decided to simply use them as lucky charms that she always brought in her bag.

The latina didn't expect the chubby hairy neighbor to do it for free, even though he used to do a lot of those things in his garage, it was his job but also his hobby.

"Luz Noceda. The cutest little flower I see around here is requesting some items for her bedroom? Of course kid. Just give me the sketch of what you desire and I'll make them for you!"

"Thank you so much Mr. Valentine! You're the best!"

Luz could still remember the way he kindly messed with her hair. He was much nicer than her stepdad ever was. She wished her mom got with him instead.

She placed the glyph on top of the tripod stand, turning the bunsen burner on. She couldn't take her eyes off of the flame as it heated up the iron, making it change to a red and yellow color. It was so hypnotizing.

After being sure it was hot enough, the human just stuck her left hand on it. Pressing it slightly against the metal, not being able to handle the stinging pain for too long.

"Maldita sea!" She screamed as her pain receptors acknowledged the throbbing pain in the palm of her hand. Tears slipped down her cheeks instinctively. Luz was a bit scared of how her hand could look, but still peeked. Her skin had the glyph printed in it like intended, but it was red and blistered.

After that she went to the first aid room and used the sink. Trying to cool the burn with some running water could help, but it kept throbbing, Luz really felt like it wouldn't stop anytime soon. Still the pain was more of a relief than an issue for her, her heart kept acheing more and she hated it. After that she covered the burn with a bandage. Wrapping it loosely around her hand, softening the pain. Good thing her mother was a doctor. It helped knowing how to take care of some injuries.

When her stepdad found out that she stole the keys, he made sure she would regret doing it ever again...

After those events Luz stopped being so talkative. It's not like she had friends who she could talk with in the first place, but she simply talked less with anyone she saw on her way.

She also stopped eating like she used too. The young Noceda wouldn't take the chance of eating dinner with that monster, she prefered to lock herself inside her bedroom until she had to go to school again. The only times she could have a peaceful meal was when she knew he would be patrolling the campus.

The campus... Even that place brought her awful memories. The popular girls were always mocking her, despised her for her weirdness, it's not like she could control it... At least in the Boiling Isles nobody was bothered by her goofy self.

One day she was outside simply drawing some doodles in her notebook, she missed her real friends so much, Amity... And even the energetic Hooty. She couldn't draw anything else besides everyone and everything from that realm. What did Eda think about her after she gone missing like that? Did she miss her too? Did she hate her?

"Hello Luzer!" A voice cut into her thoughts.

She groans when she looks up and realizes it was the trio of popular girls from her class. The one that spoke up was the leader.

"Huh... Hey guys. How's it going?" Luz awkwardly smilled at them, as she hid her drawn pages under her arms. The blonde girl noticed how she rushed to hide her things.

"It's going pretty fine for us. I doubt it is going so well for you though. You keep wasting your time writing stuff down." The blonde wasn't paying much attention to Luz, she was expecting her nails as a way to show how unimportant the latina was for her.

"Oh, I'm not writing anything... I'm just drawing a bit... It's relaxing you know? You should try it some time." The girl took advantage of the moment Luz was rambling, to steal her precious notebook. Inspecting the most recent doodles in it.

"Claire! Give me that!" Luz jolted from the floor, rushing her hand towards the book in hopes of taking it back, but the girl didn't falter, it just made her hold it far away above her head out of Luz reach.

"Woah there Noceda. That's not how you should talk to your fans." The girl just looked at her from head to toes with that smug look Luz so much hated.

She tried to keep calm for the sake of being an average student. It was hard enough to have good grades, she couldn't just pick up a fight with one of the most popular girls in her school.

Claire started laughing out loud after seeing some of the pages, she passed the notebook to her two friends, who imitated her action. Luz didn't see what was so funny about her sketches.

"Is this your little fantasy world? No wonder you don't fit in Noceda."

"Yeah this little creature looks like an angry raccoon!" One of the other girls was pointing her finger at the little demon.

"And this one looks like a tube of toilet paper!"

"That's King! He isn't a raccoon! He is a demon with cute little paws! And yes! Hooty looks like a tube, but he is a sweetheart! "Luz hated the way they were insulting her friends. She just wanted her book back so she could leave.

The human bully couldn't understand why Luz was so angry about some useless characters she created, so she pushed her to her limits. It would be fun to see Luz cry.

"I suppose this girl here is your imaginary girlfriend? Pointy ears? Green hair? Yellow eyes? You really do have weird interests Luz."

"Don't you dare talk about Amity. She's so much better than you! And her green hair looks much better than your stupid pink lock of hair!" If Luz could, she would be spitting venom all over them. What was even the point of only having a single lock of a different color? Was it a call for attention? Luz just wanted her book back. Claire took this personally, even more after a few students around campus heard Luz words, which embarassed her. This loser dared raising her voice to her.

"Oh that's it! Lighter!" She demanded, holding her hand out as she waited for one of her friends to take the object out of their pocket and place it in her hand. "Do you see this?! This is what happens to losers like you that can't take the hint that they should listen and shut up."

After that she lighted up the lighter and pressed the small flame against her drawn pages, which rapidly were consumed by the fire. Luz hopelessly saw them disappear in the blink of an eye, right in front of her face.

An important part of her burned with those pages that day. This girl messed with fire and she needed to pay.  
The words King screamed at her once, came to her mind.

"Do it Luz! For my honor!'

And just like a bear that attacks when stung by a stick, Luz throws herself against the girl, making both fall to the ground.

"Claire you're the worst! Do you really think you're better than others?! She pulled the hair of the girl under her with extreme force, even plucking some of it in frustration. The blonde didn't retaliate neither said anything, only screamed.

Luz was too blind in that moment, she could hear Claire's friend's voices. Even though they were in front of her, they sounded distant. They screamed and asked for help. She wanted to feel better, she should feel better, so why each second she passed on top of the girl felt like minutes?! Why was she crying? Why did she feel like a **monster**?!

"LUZ NOCEDA! STOP what you're doing immediately!" She recognized the voice, one of her teachers had come to end the fight between the two. "What has gotten into you?!"

"Oh... no no no no..." Luz mumbled as she looked up to the teachers panicked face and down at Claire, her hair was a complete mess... There was hair on the floor and some of it in her hands.

The teacher grabbed her by the arm pushing her away from Claire, but she was so stunned by her own actions that she fell to the ground.

"It wasn't my fault! She started it Miss Robinson! I just... I just snapped!" Luz looked up at her teacher ashamed of what she did. She really liked that teacher and the woman saw all of it.  
She would never believe it was Claire who started it.

"Go to the Principal's Office. We will talk about this later. I'm so disappointed Noceda."

Luz didn't say other word, she simply rushed to her backpack and left campus. Her heart and mind ached, it was unfair.

_'Why bullies get away with everything and when the victims snap they are the bad guys?!'_

That was everything Luz could think about, unknown faces didn't stop judging her indiscriminately, sending whispers through all the school. She had enough of humans. They were so cruel to each other.

So before going to the Principal to get her more than certain suspension, she simply gave up on that human life. She went the other way, approaching a fire alarm on a quite empty corridor, so people wouldn't see what she was about to do. She checked once more if the place was clear, pushing the handle down, setting the alarm off. She needed a distraction if she wanted to leave that suffocating place.

Students began to scream in fear and confusion as they got wet all of a sudden. They weren't expecting it so most of them believe there was really a fire going on. That's when Luz saw her opportunity. As the students ran towards the exits to leave the building, Luz fought the crowd to enter the closest chemistry lab to commit the same act she did in the past.

All that shame and pain she was feeling... It was just like what Willow went through. She has been facing all that on the Boiling Isles without her.

"She suffered for years at all those bullies hands... perhaps still does... How can I say I'm her best friend?!" The human screamed at the agonizing sting in her right hand. "Let this be... a reminder of that Luz... That you don't deserve friends..." She gasped as she gritted her teeth.

Filled with frustration the girl hit the tripod with the back of her hand, sending the glyph off the balcony straight to the hard floor, making a thud sound.

She was interrupted by another teacher that when passing by heard the loud sound coming from inside the classroom.

"Hey what are you doing here? You should be outside like the others?!"

"Ah!" Luz couldn't explain what she was doing there, she couldn't let the old teacher get to her either or everyone would know she had been the one setting the alarm off. If that happened she wouldn't leave the school so soon and more pain and humiliation would come. So the only option available was to jump out off the window. There was no time to cover her hand.

"Hey come... ba... ck... he..re!"

All the sounds around her where just too much, she couldn't hear or see clearly.

There were footsteps in the distance, but Luz didn't hear them come.

"Well this day of work was so boring... But I'm finally home. How was your day Luz? Hope you weren't too bored." Amity was so focused on receiving some cuddles from Webster that she didn't notice what was happening right away.

"What in the Isles name! Luz?"

A few bulky vines were growing all around the human's limbs and across the floor, they were coming out from her right hand. Some spikes were poping out of them too, leading the witch to believe that Luz was hurting.

She rushed on Luz direction, grabbing her by the shoulders, shaking her softly.

"Luz are you okay?"

But there was no response, the girl was lost in her sea of thoughts, but they weren't good ones because the girl was crying and whimpering silently. The vines began to intertwine around Amity's legs as well, the spikes stung her slightly through her uniform boots. They were pulling her closer to Luz. Was the human unconsciously pulling her closer? She couldn't tell, but something needed to be done. Luz simply didn't reply.

Amity shakily embraced Luz from behind. She buried her face in the humans hair, she could smell it, it was so soft and smelled wonderfully.

"Noceda? I'm here... Calm down please. You don't have to suffer on your own..." Still no reply.

"Webster could you give me a hand here please?"

Her bat had a fierce look on his face, it was his time to shine again, if helping that human would appease her master he would do it everytime.

The palisman laid on Luz head like he always did every night. A whiteish aura began to surround him and Luz, clearly showing that he had activated his good vibrations. It would ease Luz mind and perhaps snap her out of her transe.

After having her legs squeezed by the vines for quite a while, she heard a broken sob escape Luz mouth. The witch instinctively soothed the human, slightly squeezing her embrace.

"Luz?"

The human tilted her head, as she was trying to understand what had happened.

"Hey, Amity... You're back..." The girl didn't face her, not like she even could, they were a bit stuck in that position. "Oh and hello Webster."  
The bat squeaked as he felt the girl under him calm down even if for just a bit.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Right. I obviously shouldn't have asked such a stupid question. You're clearly not fine Luz."

Luz rubbed her eyes, cleaning the tears of her face, she then looked at her phone. It was also completely surrounded by vines just like them.

"Sorry about the vines... I... couldn't really control myself..."

"That's not what's worrying me right now Noceda. I'm worried about you."

Luz didn't deserve all the attention and care Amity was giving her, but happily accepted the comfort anyways.

"Can you tell me what is bothering you?"

"I just... well I turned my phone on and my mom called me... My stepdad was there too."

"I see..."

"And then I had some unpleasant memories... That's all, but besides that I'm fine!"

“It... doesn’t really sound like you're fine even less after that reply of yours... but if you’re not ready to talk about it, that’s okay. I’ll be here when you need me.”

Her body and soul were telling her that Amity really did care even if just in a friend's way.  
Maybe she should stop being so stubborn. It wasn't worth it holding a grudge against the witch's professional decision if in the end she was going to lose the last person close to her.

Luz shifted Amity's hands from her stomach to her chest. Holding them tight against her acheing heart. She didn't want her to let go.

Amity panicked for a bit, she could feel Luz heart beat hard under her hand. It was just too much to process, she was having very confusing emotions in that exact moment.

"Thanks for caring Amity... It... means a lot."

"I never stopped caring Noceda... But we should probably... You know... Get rid of this spiky situation..."

"Oh... Right?!" Luz forced her legs against the vines as she turned her body to Amity's, forgetting completely about the vines around them that refused to flinch, making them both bump noses. "Ouch... huh, sorry. I probably should have let you get rid of the vines first... Silly me." The girl smilled awkwardly as she looked away.

Amity just kept her eyes wide open as she felt her face heat up and her ears twitch. She made a circle that summoned a pink flame, that rapidly burned all the vines, disintegrating them.

"This is definitely a relief..." Luz shook her legs as she enjoyed her freedom again. "You shouldn't get too used to my hair Webster, it's no time for a nap!"

Amity crossed her arms, the fact she almost kissed the human girl just seconds ago reminded her of their first kiss years ago, but the concern for said human overtook her, making the embarrassing moment a second thought.

She only noticed recently that Luz was always trying to shrug off situations like this one. Pretending to be happy, like nothing happened, it was probably her way of dealing with her problems, but when seeing the big picture it wasn't healthy.

Amity opened her arms towards Luz slowly.

When the girl saw this she frooze.

"I... I thought the hugs phase was finished." Luz said nervously as she saw the witch bringing her in for a hug.

"Luz you can stop pretending. We both know you're not fine. It's okay to cry, let it all out." Amity wanted to ran her hand through Luz hair, but lost her courage in the way, ending up just caressing her back softly.

"I..." Luz leaned her head onto Amity’s soft hair snuggling it, tears build up as her body was held so protectively by the witch in front of her.

"You don't need to tell me anything if you don't want too, but that doesn't mean you can't vent. I'm here..."

The tears were slipping down her cheeks again. They just kept falling even against her will, a part of Luz felt safe, understood in a way that not a single word could represent, but the other didn't think she deserved all that comfort she was getting.

Her body melted into Amity's, she lost control and wrapped her arms under the witch's arms. She felt Amity squeeze her back.  
The feeling of her body so close to hers soothed her more than she had expected. Luz didn't want to admit it, but if she could stay in her arms forever she would, because in her arms, the demons couldn't reach her. She was safe.


	9. We meet again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning awesome readers! Sorry for not uploading in like two weeks, but I really wasn't feeling like writing anything. At least I hope I can compensate all of you with this huge chapter lol. I didn't expect it to be so long, but here it is.  
> I just hope my next chapter won't end up being too short.  
> Hope you like it guys!

Amity was surprised by Luz request, she didn't expect the human would want to visit Eda after all that happened. She couldn't blame her though, Eda got very weakened after she became an Owl beast, sacrificing all her magic to save Luz. She didn't look the same ever again, she was still very charismatic and supportive, but Luz couldn't take the fact that her mentor was in that situation solely because OF her. It was a huge revelation to see how the human girl wanted to rebuild ties with her second family again. Amity found that to be... heartwarming.

"I'm tired of running away Amity... I know that they probably don't need me at all, but I still need to make things right."

The witch hugged Luz with a comforting touch.

"They need you more than you think human. King is always talking about you. He misses you."

Saying this somehow gave luz an emotional boost. After most of her wounds disappeared she was in a totally different mood. She was all smiley with that shine in her brown eyes that Amity couldn't resist but get lost in.

_'Titan, I love it when she smiles. I can't get the sound of her laughter out of my head.'_

"Can we go to the Owl House as soon as we can?"

Amity was losing her focus again.

"Huh... We-well we can go tomorrow. It's my day off so I can go with you."

"It's settled then."

The next day came by quite faster than Luz expected, she hated to admit it, but she remained in two minds about going to visit Eda or just spend the day with Amity. How could she face them? Even if they really missed her like Amity told her, it would still be a weird moment, filled with disappointment and tears for sure.

Amity could tell that Luz was feeling very uneasy about this, she tried to comfort her with kind thoughts and words, trying to distract her from the reunion moment.

"Everything is going to be fine, Luz. It won't be as bad as you think. That's just your mind complicating things."

"Thanks Amity..."

"Now... before we leave. We need to get you some clothes." Amity crossed her arms as she tried to think about a solution. Luz had to hide from the Emperor's coven so her disguise needed to be a good one.

"I don't really like the idea of having Gluto on my head again..." Luz flinched at the thought of his steamy mouth on her hair. It wasn't pleasant.

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to. Even though Gluto is useful it's completely uncomfortable to spend a whole day with him almost munching on your head."

Then the witch had an idea. It was in fact her day off, she didn't need to wear her uniform. She could walk freely around the Isles so if Luz had her uniform she would be safe too, she would still receive death stares, but anything would be better than being captured by the Emperor.

_'The emperor... What would he think if he finds out that I'm helping Luz... I would be petrified for sure.'_

"Amity? Are you okay? You got pale all of a sudden."

Luz was really worried about her change of mood. It wasn't like her to simply go silent and pale like that.

"Yeah... Yes. I'm fine. Was just thinking..." Amity tried to act the most natural possible. Shrugging her terrifying thoughts away.

"I got the perfect idea." After saying this the young Blight drew a big circle in the air, summoning her daily uniform. "You could wear my guard clothes. Nobody would suspect a thing."

Luz wrinkled her nose when seeing those clothes being handed to her. She was feeling dirty just of thinking about the Emperor's coven. How could she wear them without feeling heavy inside?

Amity noticed her discomfort, but didn't know how to ease the situation.

"Nobody would mess with you Luz. And it's just for a day. Besides I think white goes well with you."

"Huh... Thanks." Luz appreciated the compliment, but it still sounded wrong to her. Even if a bit hesitant, she still grabbed the clothes and got changed, but not before Amity left the bedroom. There was no way she would get changed in front of her witch friend.

' _Amity was taking care of my wounds... That was different. Argh! Who am I kidding...'_ Luz face started to heat up as she remembered the times Amity saw her bare skin. _'those were embarassing moments...'_

A few minutes later Luz was finally dressed, she took a look in the mirror. Seeing her figure in those garments made her look intimidating, she felt powerful even.

People would actually be afraid of her when seeing her walk down the streets with that monotonous mask Amity always wore.

_'Amity... she wears this uniform everyday... The same uniform I'm wearing right now... Okay Luz, just breathe.'_

The human couldn't control it, she was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. It was so comforting to have those clothes on. She expected to feel awful about having them on her body, but when she mixed both Amity and that guard uniform, it simply stopped having that suffocating and scary connotation she would usually give to the Emperor's guards in general.

Amity was a good witch, she never wanted to hurt anyone, even if her job required her to capture rebels sometimes. She always showed how much she wanted to protect her fellow human. The latina couldn't get mad at her for doing what she had to do, the Boiling Isles functioned differently from the earth. Luz understood that now.

"Are you ready Luz? We need to go if we still want to find good and fresh supplies for Eda." Amity asked impatiently from the other side of the door. She really had a hidden sweet center, she just didn't like to show it.

"I'm coming!"

When Luz opened the door, Amity was shocked by the view. Her uniform fit the human girl perfectly, she looked so fierceless and the young witch was surely impressed.

"You're just missing one little thing." As she said this she handed the mask to Luz. It was probably for the better if no one knew she was here, at least for now.

"It's hard to see through this mask. How can you see anything with it?" Luz moved the mask trying to position it better, hoping to see everything around her clearly, but it was a failed attempt.

"You just get used to it. Now let's go. We still need to go to the Bonesborough market to buy you some clothes and other things."

Amity noticed how confused Luz looked, she gave each step shakily and slowly behind her.

"Hold my arm. I'll guide you until you feel comfortable with the mask." She held out her arm which Luz soon held tight, even if still a bit hesitant of doing so. Amity wasn't expecting her own request to make her panic a little inside. Her heart jumped at their warmth and sudden closeness.

The way they walked through the forest reminded her of how her parents always presented themselves to their guests. Her mom holding her dad's arm, pretending to be the happiest couple in existence, it was all a lie. But with Luz it was different, she really wanted to be with her and keep her close. Her action wasn't supposed to show off to others, she just really wanted to help Luz and hopefully both would enjoy their time spent together.

Luz didn't let go of her arm a single time, Amity was thrilled about it, even if it was most probably simply because Luz couldn't walk alone with ease. It had been a few months now since the last time she held someone like that... It hadn't been the most pleasant of experiences, but it had to be done to keep up appearances.

_'That's what Blights do.'_

Her parents always said such things to her and her siblings, but Amity got tired of such nonsense. She didn't side with their ideologies any longer.

As they got closer to the marketplace, more people could be seen interacting with the many stands and goods. As Amity expected, most of the Boilanders looked at them with mistrust. Luz felt crucified just by those stares. At least there were no "wanted" posters with her face, possibly meaning that only the Emperor's coven knew about her bounty, so the people living there wouldn't turn her in, which was a bit of a relief.

"This is worse than the last time I came here with Edric..." Luz whispered, holding Amity even closer.

"Don't worry. They won't dare do anything to you besides staring. These civilians aren't more than cowards." Amity offered a tight squeeze of comfort.

"Besides... I'm a Blight. People see me with you so they won't say a word."

Amity heedless of the suspicious looks, guided Luz to the nearest vegetable stand that fortunately had no costumers close by. Eda probably needed some fresh vegetables and fruits by now. Even if not, the more the better.

"Okay, let's just buy some food and then focus on clothes for you, Noceda."

Luz felt so pampered in that morning. It reminded her of when her mom went shopping with her when she was younger and how she never let go of her hand, guiding her through all the stores. All in all, Amity took care of her like nobody had in a long time.

The stand was empty but soon someone Luz recognized showed up, claiming to be the owner of that welcoming small stand. The owner looked so confident and beautiful and the headband on her head made all of her look even cuter, the human never saw her like that before. It made her feel an unexpected warmth inside her chest. A part of her brain was excited to see her, but it quickly jumped into reality. How did she dare think that the young witch in front of her would even be interested in talking to her again?

"Good morning Willow! I didn't know you were here today."

"Hey Amity! Oh yes, my dad had some things to take care of so I took his place for the day. I see you brought a working partner with you..."

Luz didn't say a word, simply looking Amity blankly in the eyes, just noticing a few moments later that she still had her hand around the green haired girl's arm. Good thing that she had that mask covering her face, because in that exact moment she felt embarassed and depressed. How could someone feel such a mix of emotions?!

"Oh right... She's my partner alright." Amity laughed awkwardly. "She's just holding my arm because she's a new recruit and still getting used to the mask. We aren't dating or anything..."

"Huh huh... You're clearly hidding something." Willow looked at them teasingly as she casted a paper bag and started putting some fruits into it with her magic.

It was faster than the way humans did it, using your own hands was so outdated. Being able to hold multiple things at the same time with magic was really useful.

"So the usual for the person we know who?"

The only guard Willow was okay with was definitely Amity, so there was no possible way she was going to mention Eda to the Emperor's loyal followers.

Amity sighed, rubbing her neck as she finally decided that she should tell Willow the truth. She deserved that and Luz deserved to talk to her old friend too.

"She knows about Eda."

"You told another guard about Eda's location? Are you mad?" Willow whispered trying to contain a shout so she wouldn't get any unwanted attention.

"She isn't a guard, she's-"

"Hello... Willow..." Luz interrupted Amity by giving her identity away herself, she took the mask off, looking down in shame, she couldn't really face her in the eyes now that the flowers lover knew who she really was.

Willow's reaction changed abruptly as silence took place. She was so flooded with emotion that she could barely speak.

Luz looked up to see the more than expected disappointed look in Willow's face, but instead she was surprised by her two buffy arms around her, squeezing her a little too hard and lifting her up from the ground in the process.

"By the Titan! It's you Luz? I can't believe it. You're back."

"Yes I'm back. Sorry for leaving you Willow..." Luz blushed a little at the sight of her old friend's defined muscles.

"Don't apologize Luz. I'm just so happy you're here!"

The buffy witch let Luz go so she could see her face.

"You haven't changed a bit!" Willow winked at Luz, making her blush slightly at the compliment.

"You look amazing too!"

She couldn't believe how well Willow was reacting to her return. She was happy to see her, not mad and that was very reassuring for Luz. Her inner demons were wrong about Willow, she was still loyal to their friendship after all that happened.

"Amity took me in, but I'm still not very certain of what I will do with my messy life. It's complicated..."

"You'll find a way Luz! You always do. You just need to stay positive."

They kept talking for a few more minutes, it was almost like their friendship didn't change with the loss of contact. Amity then coughed loudly, interrupting their conversation after feeling like a third wheel.

"I don't want to end this happy moment, but we still have places to go and things to do and the day isn't getting any bigger girls."

Deep down Amity was just jealous of how Willow hugged her human friend. She clearly saw the blush in the latina's face. Maybe she should workout even more to appeal Luz?

_'I don't need to! I have muscles! I trained to be a guard, it wasn't any easy task... Damn it Willow, why do you have bigger muscles than me!'_

"Sorry sorry! I'll get all your stuff set in just a minute!" Willow said as she noticed Amity's jealousy stare. "Maybe I should visit you both some time!" Willow clasped her hands together cheerfully, teasing Amity just a tiny bit more.

"That would be nice Willow." Luz was happy to know that her old friend wanted to bond with her more.

After a few moments Willow handed them two paper bags, one full of vegetables and the other with fruits.

"Here's your goods Amity! They are all fresh and very healthy!"

"And here's your snails."

"Thank you miss Blight."

"I hate when you call me that, Park." Amity growled half annoyed half amused at the tease, she didn't like to be called Miss Blight. She looked like her mom, but she definitely didn't want to be "miss Blight".

"I'll send you a message when I can!"

"Okay! Bye girls!"

Luz felt like a huge weight had been taken off her body. It had been very comforting to see Willow again, even if she wasn't expecting to find her in that stand. Talking to her just made her feel like a teenager again, it was nice to have a friend to have a good conversation with. Amity didn't count... She wasn't just a friend to her anyways...

After seeing Amity struggle a little bit with the supposedly heavy bags, the girl asked if she needed some help with them, but she refused by drawing a large circle into the ground with her foot, which created a small portal that opened in her kitchen. She inserted the bags inside, closing it right after.

"See. No more bags."

"There must be a glyph for that! You need to let me try it!"

Luz got closer to Amity, placing her hands on her shoulders and shaking the witch a bit in the process. Amity couldn't see Luz face, but she was clearly happy by the way she talked.

"Su-sure... I can help you learn a new glyph Luz!" She would be blushing like a tomato for sure if she wasn't simply staring into a guard's mask that evoked no emotion. "But for now we need to get you new clothes if you want to walk around the Isles without looking suspicious or being despised."

In that market there was only one shop that sold human style clothes, so that would be their next stop.

Unfortunately for Amity's dismay, that's where most rich witchlings and families spent their free time.

Everyone that belonged to high class, including her own parents were clout chasing, dishonest or simply judged people for not fitting into established societal norms and this made Amity feel very uncomfortable and like she had to hide a lot of her actual self, so she definitely avoided going there at all costs. At least Luz would be a little bit more respected there than in any other place of the market.

After all, witches that belonged to the high class were utter boot lickers that just wanted to be on the good side of every type of authority and for now, Luz was a guard, at least in theory.

When they finally got to the desired store, they were greeted by a huge sign on top of the door that said _"Witches Garments and Demonic Attires"_. The words were imbued in light, sparking once in a while to catch everyone's attention. Inside of the small tent could be seen a few clothing sections and two small fitting rooms.

One of the sections caught Luz attention, for some reason those clothes had eyes and some of them even had mouths.

"Why is everyone so obsessed with living clothes?"

"I guess that's what defines our kind." Amity laughed as she checked some shirts from one of the clothes rack.

Soon the employee of the tent came out of the storage room that was located behind the shop's counter.

"Good morning! How may I help you?"

That voice, Amity knew that voice. She felt all the air leaving her lungs, freezing in that exact place when she saw who worked there.

"Oh! If it isn't Amity Blight."

"Boscha..."

"What brings you here today?"

"Buying some clothes. What other reason would there be for coming here?" Amity crossed her arms, annoyed at her sight.

"Oh I don't know. Your parents could have told you that I'm working here for a few weeks now. Either way I appreciate the visit." Said Boscha resting her chin on her palm before Amity turned her back at her. Boscha clearly didn't like this behavior.

She approached both of them and tried to start a conversation since she was curious about Amity's new acquaintance.

"Your little friend doesn't talk?" She asked, placing her hand on her waist and resting the other on top of the clothing rack, forcing Amity to look at her.

"For all I know you don't need to be talkative to be one of Belos guards." Amity frowned at the sudden invasion of space.

"Hum I see. Well can I help you with anything? I'm a fashion expertise." Boscha tilted Amity's chin up with her finger and thumb, meeting her gaze. She was trying to get Amity interested in her again, but the young Blight never was, even if she had to admit that the three eyed girl knew what she was doing.

Luz thought it was better not to say a word, the atmosphere felt heavy enough just with the two witches glaring at each other. She felt horrible there, having the urge to make Boscha back off, but both witches in front of her were friends in the past so they probably still were, so that was normal between them, right?

"I'm not going back to you Boscha. We already talked about this. Just tell me where the human clothes are, PLEASE?!"

"What? Why would you be interested in that old fashioned crap? It doesn't go with you at all, Blight."

"Are you selling clothes or not? I want to buy some and I don't have all day, or will I need to tell your boss that you're trying to sabotage his piggy bank?"

"Fine." Boscha really couldn't lose that job, she liked it just too much. Also she was good with clothing and fashion in general, so better just do her job and try to get Amity's attention later.

She guided her two costumers to a corner where the desired clothes were located. It was a small section but still Luz had enough to choose from. The sign above the clothes rack had the words "Dress like a human here" written in it. Amity thanked Boscha and then gestured her to leave them alone.

"Sorry. I didn't want you to see that." Amity started checking the clothes she thought would go better with Luz, besides she had to distract herself with something. It was embarassing enough that the human had to see that.

"It's... Okay. So you and Boscha huh...?" The human whispered as she looked down at her feet in disappointment.

Luz was too confused with all that conversation between the two just a few minutes ago. Amity didn't want to get back with Boscha? Were they a couple in the past? What was she missing?

"I don't want to talk about it. What matters now is finding you some nice comfy clothes. So let's try these out!" The witch tried to cease that subject by showing Luz a few pairs of shirts and pants that she found in those piles of clothes. "I think you will like at least one of these."

"Thanks."

As they approached the fitting room, Luz felt her bird mask move by itself and then fly off her face, going directly into Boscha's hand as the three eyed witch witnessed the impossible.

"Round ears?! Here? I thought you were gone for good!" She approached the human with the mask still on her hand.

"Hello, Boscha!" Luz laughed nervously as she didn't know what the witch in front of her would do now that she knew who she was. She just tried to play it cool.

"I knew something was off. First you didn't talk or take your mask off and then you two wanted to go to the human section."

"Boscha stop being nosy. This is none of your business." Amity was pissed, the witch had gone past boundaries once again. If she hadn't her hands busy with clothes she would be teaching her a lesson.

"You really did go soft after meeting that human, didn't you?"

"This human has a name and it's Luz. Now if you'll excuse us, we have some clothes to try out."

"Whatever." The bitter witch threw the mask in Luz direction, caughting the human girl off guard as she awkwardly tried to grab the accessory before it fell into the ground. After having it back, they finally got to the fitting rooms. Amity handed her the clothes as she waited outside. Luckily the clothes she picked would fit the latina and go well with her skin in the process too.

It took longer than she expected, but taking out an uniform like hers wasn't easy, even less if that person didn't use magic to get dressed. Luz came out of the small room to show Amity how the clothes looked on her. She wasn't the best judge, all pieces were pretty, but a specific combination stood out, which Amity couldn't resist but approve at 100 per cent.

"That grey shirt with those pants really scream Luz Noceda. We can take those if you want."

Luz really liked them a lot too, it made her look more mature and confident than she actually felt about herself.

"You'll probably want to hide those weird round ears of your though!" Boscha shouted from behind the counter as she looked up from the book she was pretending to read. That made Luz hide her ears with her hands. She hated to feel different, at least she felt more at home in the Boiling Isles than she ever felt in the human realm.

Amity showed a look of pure hatred towards Boscha.

How despicable could she be? Was there a limit?

"Wait here Luz."

The green haired witch went to a hat section and searched for a good accessory that Luz could hide her ears with and thats when she found a black cowl.

When she got back to her human friend she could't help but notice the confused look in her face.

"May I?"

Luz nodded and so the witch placed the cowl over Luz head carefully. Covering her human ears and even being capable of hiding her mouth. It was truly a good accessory to hide her identity.

"This way no one will know who you are." Amity whispered as she caressed a lock of the girl's hair. "But let me tell you that your round ears just make you look even cuter. Don't listen to that jerk."

"Thanks Amity... It's nice to know that my ears don't freak you out."

Amity was looking at the cowl with her eyes half closed, still not convinced of its bland appearance, something was missing. She snapped her fingers, finally having a good idea that would definitely lighten up the mood. She made a small circle in the air and soon two fluffy cat ears popped on top of the cowl.

"And voilà, what do you think?"

Luz turned her back to a small mirror in the room.

Checking out her newly stylized cowl. It just reminded her of her old cat hoody, it was perfect.

"I love it Amity! Thank you."

"It was nothing really."

"Let me just get changed again and then we can pay and leave this place."

_'You did it again Blight. You made Luz Noceda smile'_

Amity decided to wait outside and get some air, Luz was going to take a few moments to get her uniform on again anyways. Boscha drove her crazy and not in the way her parents wished for so the less she had to face her he better.

Luz was finally ready, she opened the curtain and took the clothes towards Boscha, so she could pay them.

"We will take all this, Boscha."

"Oh don't you even dare say my name." Boscha started packing all the clothing pieces inside a paper bag.

"Huh... Okay."

"You know. Amity was mine before, but apparently she has... low standards." The three eyed witch looked her from head to toe, clearly giving the hint that she was refering to the human, but oblivious as Luz always was she didn't notice that subtle stare.

"Perhaps Amity just has better taste than you, but oh silly me you don't even have any good taste, just look at your clothes."

"Why you little..." As Boscha was about to cast a spell on Luz to make her pay, Amity came to her aid, laughing uncontrollably at the distasteful roast Luz blurted out seconds earlier.

"Come on Boscha. Are you really letting a human get to you? I thought you had grown." Amity rested her elbow on the table as she teased the witch behind the counter, making her blush of embarrassement.

"You know what? Just pay and leave my store."

"How much?" Amity asked as she took the bag away from the counter.

"Two hundred snails."

"Two hundred?! Im pretty sure these clothes should be cheaper!"

"Well you basically changed that cowl's default appearance so it's more expensive now. You're welcome." Boscha had that mischievous smile on her face, she was enjoying this a lot.

"Fine."

There was not much Amity could do besides agreeing with the condition Boscha proposed to them. If she wanted to take the clothes she would have to pay, even if that was a clear representation of overcharging.

They left the tent without saying any other word, following the path to the forest located in the outskirts of the city that would lead them to the Owl House. Eda and King would be thrilled to see what Amity brought them, food and more importantly, Luz. Today would be their lucky day. Amity made a second portal and placed the clothes inside as well, of course she wouldn't walk around with all that stuff on her hands.

As they finally entered the Abysmal Woods where Eda lived in, Luz spotted what she could describe as a blackish small plane in the air. It wasn't that far from them, but the girl couldn't figure the dot in the air very well since the mask wasn't helping, so she took it off.

"An airplane? In the Boiling Isles?" She asked looking at the sky again, unfortunately ending up staring into an empty blue sky, the big figure was long gone. "Oh it disappeared..."

"An airplane? What is that?"

"Oh right... You don't have those here. It's basically a human means of transportation, it flies like your staff, but takes a lot of people at once."

"That sounds fun." Amity laughed as she imagined how impractical it probably was to take more than two people on the same staff. "Anyways you probably saw a Griffin, nothing that alarming. Don't worry."

"Yeah you're probably right..." Luz looked up once again, there was something about that big creature that made her feel uneasy. It didn't look like a Griffin at all, but perhaps her eyes were deceiving her.

Both of them were now deep in the woods. They knew they were getting closer to their destination as the talking birds started showing up on the many tree branches. Both girls didn't really know why they were bothered by their presence, or any presence at this point, but everytime Amity entered these woods and got closer to the House, they started threatening her.

Perhaps this was Hooty's doing, he is a demon owl after all, maybe he talked with the birds, at least that was Amity's theory.

Finally after finding the small lake and an empty space sorrounded by trees, Luz recognized where she was.

Thankfully Eda hadn't needed to change her location, which meant that no threats had found her yet. It was a relief to know that her friends hadn't been forced by the Emperor's authorities to run away, but it was still frustrating to know that they would probably need to do that again at some point in their lives.

"Just wait a little bit, Luz. I need to make the house visible again."

Luz waited as Amity touched an invisible wall and uttered a few incomprehensible words, soon she saw the house turn visible piece by piece. It was strange to be back in that house. What would Eda or King think? Maybe it wasn't a good idea to be there after all.

"Maybe I shouldn't be here, Amity." Luz started to freak out as the last parts of the house turned visible.

Amity didn't even have the time to reassure her human friend as Hooty chimed from the door, twirling in place energetically.

"Hoot hoot! Good morning Amity!" The owl demon hugged the witch with his long body, which she didn't like at all.

_'If you had a beating heart I would kill you so bad'_

Amity really hated when that bird touched her.

"Who's your friend?" Hooty tilted his head as he tried to figure out who the new visitor was. Luz tried to cover her face with her hand but it was too late. There was no escape.

"Luz?! Hoot hoot! You're back! Did you miss me?" The door demon let go of Amity and rushed towards Luz, making them both almost bump noses.

"Hey Hooty... Sure I did." Luz petted the Owl's wooden head awkwardly, he was so close she could feel his warm breath hitting her face. "I'm here to see Eda and King actually."

"Of course! I'm happy to know you missed me though! We sure did miss you a lot! King didn't stop crying for weeks." Hooty smilled, clearly not understanding the pain her departure caused years ago, probably the demon was just too innocent and thought that Luz would come back one day or it was simply because he didn't have a soul or wasn't able to cry. No one would ever know.

The guardian demon opened the door before them, allowing both girls to enter, when finally inside the house the owl closed the door behind them.

Amity snapped her fingers and soon enough the house was invisible again. Luz didn't know what to do or how to act, so she just took the uniform's hood off, uncovering her ears. The house had the same sweet smell just like she remembered and everything looked exactly the same, besides the fact the house was darker because of the lack of lights of course. Apparently Eda still couldn't tolerate lights well.

"Eda, King! I brought supplies for you!" The witch called out as she started taking the food bags out of her newly made portal and placed them on top of the small table in front of the sofa.

"What do I do Amity? What should I say?!" Luz was panicking, all the eyes in that house would be on her.

"Luz I'm here. Calm down and breathe." Amity squeezed her arm softly, trying to reassure her, but she herself knew how hard it was to stay calm when we thought everyone would judge our actions.

King was the first one showing up in the living room, he was running on his four paws thrilled to see the new goods so when he saw Luz in front of him, he stopped abruptly almost stumbling on the carpet.

"Nyeh! Luz?!" He tried to get up but his little fluffy legs were shaking from the jumpscare.

"Hey King..." Luz smilled shyly.

"No. You're not real! Amity why did you make this illusion!" King was pointing his tiny finger judgingly at Amity.

"It's not an illusion little guy."

"Yeah right! It's so convincing, it's not funny." The demon retreated to a corner of the room, sitting down and turning his back on both girls. He couldn't face them right now. They shared a worried look as they heard the little demon sniffling uncontrollably. Amity tilted her head on his direction, and so Luz took a deep breath and approached the heartbroken demon.

"King... I'm no illusion. If I was I would have disappeared by now." The girl clarified as she shakily petted him in the head. The little demon flinched at the touch. The illusion was right. They disappeared when they came into contact with living beings so she couldn't be fake!

He looked up, facing Luz once more, his eyes were dilated and tears welled in them as they coursed down his furry cheeks.

"Luz! It's really you! By the Titan!" He jumped on her and Luz instintively hugged him tight against her chest, his tail wagged from one side to the other as he barely contained his emotions. "I missed you so much."

"I missed my boo boo buddy too."

"What's going on here?" Eda entered the living room as she removed a little spider from her grey hair. Even if she didn't turn into a Owl beast anymore she kept sleeping on her nest, so eventually some bugs would call her hair home. "Kid?!" The woman stared blankly with her eyes wide open at the sight of her student. "It can't be. You're back?"

"Eda look I..." Luz was about to apologize for everything she made the old witch go through and for abandoning them, but got interrupted by a heart warming and not expected hug from her second mom. The girl snuggled in and started chewing on her lower lip as she tried to contain her tears, but she felt so warm and protected that it was all in vain.

"I'm so happy to see you kid. I thought we wouldn't see you again." In that moment Eda's arms squeezed a fraction tighter.

Despite the heaviness in Luz stomach resulting of her guilt, she still melted at the feeling of her body pressed against Eda's and King's.

"I needed to leave, I'm so sorry, but I don't plan on leaving so soon this time."

"That's the kind of pep talk I like to hear Luz." She affectionately ruffled the girl's hair with her hand as she finally took a glance at Amity, that had her arms crossed and acted like she hadn't just witnessed their bonding moment. "Hey, you too Blight. Come here." Eda held out one of her arms so that Amity could join the hug. The young witch was a bit embarassed of such request, but she would be close to Luz so everyone won.

Those minutes had been intense, but Luz felt a huge relief inside her heart. One hour or so later, Eda invited both girls to have lunch at the Owl House, which Luz accepted without thinking twice.

"Since you brought so many fruits and vegetables, let's make some soup and deserts shall we Blight?" Eda took the bags to the kitchen with the help of Luz and started placing one by one on top of the table, a busy hour awaited her. Luz volunteered to help Eda with the meal, there was no way she would let her mentor do everything by herself, it's not like she could draw a circle and get everything done in the blink of an eye like before.

Time passed quite fast, it was fun to cook once in a while, but as Luz had to take her gloves off to prepare the vegetables, Eda noticed her glyphs. She didn't make many questions though, she didn't want to sound indelicate.

Luz was a bit scared of telling her the truth, but she always felt like she could tell Eda everything and turns out that her mentor didn't judge her for hurting herself, she kind of found them useful even. Both got to know a little more about what each of them went through these two past years and it was a bit terapheutic for Luz. Both were on the same page and had no hard feelings about the past. Eda was just happy to see her kid reach out to her after so long. She was so happy for having Luz back in her life, she gave meaning to it and there was no better gift than that.

The food was served so Eda called everyone to the table, as always King was the first one showing up and impatient as he was he held his hands out towards the table and jumped, hoping to be grabbed and placed on his wooden baby high chair. Luz made the honors of grabbing her little baby like she used to in the past and King couldn't be any more delighted.

"I know you're not used to such cheap food, but this is what he have for now Amity."

"Don't worry miss Eda. It's delicious. I don't mind eating simple food, I'm not like my parents."

They just ate a soup with a sandwich and a salad fruit as desert, but it was good enough to fill anyone's belly, besides Amity learned that it's not the food that matters, it was the people you spent the meal with that mattered.

After eating and getting the kitchen cleaned, everyone went to the living room to chat a little more. Amity decided to summon her staff and unscrew Webster from it, she promised Owlbert that next time she came to visit, she would bring Webster to play so she couldn't break her promise. Luz found it very cute to see both Palismans flying around and chirping at each other.

She wished she had her own Palisman, that's when she remembered about the staff she stole from the comformatorium.

"Eda, there's something I would like you to see. Amity?" She looked in the witch's direction as she called for her attention. "Could you summon the other staff?"

"Sure Luz."

Amity drew a circle in the air and soon the brown staff popped up.

Eda rose an eyebrow skeptically, she didn't understand what Luz wanted her to see in such a common staff like that, it didn't even have a Palisman. The witchling sent the staff to Luz with another spell and soon Eda and King were observing the apparently uninteresting stick.

"Behold! My new staff!" Luz said eagerly. "Or part of it I guess..." But soon her enthusiasm fell as she noticed that it wasn't really a staff unless it had a Palisman.

"She stole it from the conformatorium, she's following your steps after all Miss Eda." Amity confessed as she played a little with both Palismans. She felt like she had to say it, they both looked very alike, perhaps when Eda was Luz age she stole small things like this too.

"My little criminal, I'm so proud."

"That's not the point Eda. The thing is... I found this staff in the contraband room and I can feel some magic in it, but I'm not sure how I can get a Palisman, since... You know. I'm just a human."

"Let me see that old thing."

Luz handed the staff to her mentor, Eda touched it for a bit with her eyes closed to feel the magic flowing through it. What she felt surprised her.

"Yes, this staff definitely has some magic in it, but it doesn't solely have the magic of a witch it also has the aura of a human!"

"Well that would make sense, since it was inside the contraband room where only humans can enter." King pointed out the obvious and then ran towards Eda's bedroom, leaving them all speculating about the origins of such staff.

"So that means that humans lived here before?" Luz was completely in awe.

"It's unlikely kid. I never heard stories of a human that had a staff, but it really has magic in it's core."

"Wait! Wait! I have the answer for your dilemma!" King raced towards them excitedly as he brought a book in his paws, one that Eda didn't bother much reading.

"Behold! _'The unauthorized Boiling Isles History'_! There will definitely be something about that staff of yours in here Luz!"

A few minutes passed and boredom ensued as King was taking too long to find what he was searching for.

"Any minute now!"

"Seriously King, you're killing me of boredom. Could we just get to the point and help Luz get a Palisman?"

"I found it! Here! See?" King cheerfully said as he stick the book in Eda's face.

The old witch grabbed the book and started reading the page the little demon was pointing at.

_"Seventy years ago when witches could still do all kinds of magic and were free, an anonymous human became a legend as he himself created his own staff with the help of his witch lover. By sacrificing a part of the witch's power the human was able to possess his own staff and Palisman that obeyed him, giving him the possibility of making all types of magic like every living witch in the Isles. The whereabouts of this special staff are unknown."_

"Are you trying to say that this is the staff the book is refering to?" Amity asked puzzled. What were the probabilities?

"Yes! If it has a human aura it can only be this one!" The little demon was really convinced of this.

Luz was still surprised about all the new information, but she didn't really care if this was the staff of the book, she just wanted to be able to make a Palisman.  
That way she wouldn't be useless in that realm.

"Do you know how I can make a Palisman for the staff?"

"You're lucky Luz. If you had a Palisman and not a staff, you would need to make a whole new staff and Palisman, but this can be fixed. There's an ancient tree that is able to create Palismans, but it's a bit far away from here, it would take you almost a day to get there." Eda explained everything slowly. "And don't forget the important part. You would need someone to sacrifice their magic for you Luz, or your staff won't come to life. I would do it, but I'm very weak now as you well know."

Luz looked at Amity and then down at her feet in disappointment. Witches really had it easier, they could make their own staff without having to sacrifice anything. Where was she going to find someone that would agree to give their magic for her staff?! It was a lost cause. She felt like she wasted Eda's time with her nonsense. She couldn't believe that the old lady in the night market told her about an useless staff, there was no possible way she would be selfish and deprive a witch of their power. At least she had to thank the old witch for one thing, if it wasn't for her she wouldn't have met Amity once again for sure.

It was getting late so both girls decided to go back home, King and Owlbert were a bit sad that they had to leave, but the promise that both girls would come back was enough to make their tiny hearts grow warm.

It had been nice to spend some quality time at the Owl House, but right now Luz just wanted to rest. It had been too many emotions in a single day. All the events that happened in the prior hours didn't leave her mind.

Amity noticed how quiet Luz was on their way back home, something was surely bothering her.

"You okay Noceda?"

"Yeah I'm okay. I just have a lot in my head." She said with her head ducked low as they made their way through the woods.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Well, why do you always try to change subject when I ask you about Boscha? It can't be that hard to admit you two dated before." Luz was more worried about the staff than Boscha, but she had to admit that the relationship between Amity and the three eyed witch was messing with her head.

_'Is Luz jealous? Could it be?'_

_'Love is a trivial matter, Blights never think of such foolish matters'_

Even if far away of her parents, Amity still heard their voices in her head, how annoying could they be.

"Fine. Yes. Boscha and I dated for a few months. Our parents wanted to combine their influences over the Boiling Isles by getting us to marry each other, they didn't even mind if I was with a girl as long as our relationship was advantageous for their reputation, but I couldn't stand Boscha so I simply left my parent's house and started living with Edric."

"That's awful, parents should never care more about reputation than their children's feelings. That's so messed up, it drives me crazy." Luz rage flowed through her like lava and Amity could feel it.

All of a sudden as they were both getting closer to the woods exit, Amity saw a shadow move from the corner of her eye in a bush.

"Did you see that Luz?" Her eyebrows snapped together.

"See what?" The human was still too focused on what the witch told her moments earlier that she didn't know what Amity was talking about.

"We are not alone. Stay behind me." Amity casted a light spell, creating a light ball to see more clearly who was spying them from the bushes.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

But as soon as Amity shouted these words, something snatched Luz by the uniform's cape and flew away with her.

"AHHHHHH! WHOAAA!" The human girl was meters above the ground now, as a huge feathery grey and black creature took her away from Amity.

"Luz!" Amity ran after them as she tried to summon her staff to reach Luz, but suddenly a binding spell made her fall to the ground holding her feet together.

Luz saw two witches get closer to Amity as she hopelessly struggled to get free from whatever was grabbing her, but there wasn't much she could do to help the witch she adored so much.

Amity tried to kick her legs wildly, attempting to fight at whatever was holding her back and restricting her and even tried to create an abomination to come to her aid but as soon as the two witches saw her trying to cast magic they tied her hands down with another spell.

"This is no time to play with magic."

"Let me go, you don't know who you're messing with!" Amity's voice was motivated by pure vindictiveness.

Why were they being attacked like that? What did they want from Luz?

_'The Emperor... Oh no, what if he found out about Luz and took her?! But these witches weren't guards...'_

Amity couldn't stop thinking about the reason behind the attack so as a last attempt to get free she drew a circle with her tongue on the floor, it was disgusting, but she had no other choice.

"Abomination rise!" And so it did, rising under her master, holding her protectively in one of it's big slimy hands as it prepared to run away, but the female witch summoned a magical flute and started playing a weird melody that put the abomination in some kind of trance, forbidding them from escaping.

"Let go." The witch ordered and before Amity knew, her abomination was no longer under her orders, letting her fall to the ground again.

"Ouch... Argh this is getting old." She spit out some grass as she glanced up at her kidnappers.

She didn't recognize the witches, but they seemed... impressed.

"You have a strong spirit kid, but sometimes you just need to know when to give up." The man said as he casted a levitation spell on her.

They were right, she had been caught off guard and that gave her a huge disadvantage from the very beginning, also caring too much about Luz made her lose her focus.

"What do you want from me?!"

"You'll see soon enough."

And just like this, the witch playing the flute switched melodies, Amity's eyes started feeling heavy as her mind dragged her into the oblivion of sleep.


	10. Wild Witches

Voices could be heard, but they weren't anything more than distant and imperceptible sounds. Amity felt like she was under water, the sounds echoed in her numb head. Her brain ordered her eyes to open up so she could see what was happening around her but they refused to, or better yet, something was forbidding her from opening them.

"You're a guard! You know how to get in! Tell me!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Luz explained utterly confused towards everything that was happening.

Luz! Of course. Luz was taken by a flying demon and Amity tried to rescue her, but failed miserably.  
Amity wanted to protect the human she loved, but it had all been for nothing.

"I'm not done yet! I'll be back! You'll talk one way or another."

She heard a door shut in front of her as the steps were less and less audible. Both were finally alone. Amity tried to move and wake up, moaning a bit annoyed at how weak her body felt, her brain was making her sink away once again on that tempting sleep.

"Amity? You awake?"

Luz wanted to approach the green haired witch sleeping in the corner of the room as soon as she could, but she had to drag herself towards her. A few moments later the witch felt two hands holding her face, Luz was caressing her cheeks with her thumbs, trying to wake her up.

"Amity come on, wake up please. I need you..."

"Argh..." The witch tried to open up her eyes slowly and with huge effort, but she was making it.

"I'm... Here."

"Dios mío. I thought they hurt you. You didn't flinch once."

"I was... Just sleeping." Amity said, barely able to keep her eyes open. She let out a yawn as she closed her eyes once again for just five more seconds, the spell was being stronger than her.

"Amity!"

She wide opened her eyes startled at the sudden call of her name.

"I'm awake, I'm awake." She tried to sit up, but her body was still restricted by the biding spell and felt numb, so she lacked the strength necessary to get up at that moment.

"Could you give me a hand here? I don't like to be kissing the floor." Amity felt grumpy, which was one of the side effects of the sleeping spell.

"Oh sure." Luz managed to sit her up, there was not much they could do besides waiting. Amity looked around, the room they were in didn't look like a common prison cell, so they weren't in the comformatorium. It pretty much looked like a small room from someone's house, but old and with just a couple of candles to light it up, at least Amity could see Luz, so she was content with it.

"They think I'm a guard and want some informations..."

Luz scooted closer to Amity, sitting next to her, as the witch was still trying to figure out who took them.

"And you clearly don't know anything." Amity looked down, she felt guilty for their current situation, Luz was in danger because of her.

"It's better this way. I would never hand you over to someone that wants to hurt you Amity." The human leaned her head, resting it against Amity's. The witch wasn't expecting this sudden contact, but she appreciated it. She felt warm when with Luz, it made all that terrifying situation more bearable.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes, having only their breathing sounds and thoughts to distract them. Until Luz finally spoke.

"I'm scared Amity. You can't do magic like this and I'm a sitting duck."

"Noceda, don't you dare thinking that you're useless."

Amity moved away a little so she could look Luz in the eyes. Her eyes were filled with determination, she had to be brave for both of them and Luz couldn't see that she was scared herself. "And don't forget, I'm still here. I won't let anyone touch you."

Luz didn't know what to say, so she just smilled as those sweet words slowly gave her a feeling of security. The feeling didn't last long though as voices and heavy steps started to echo in the room, they were getting closer and this time the witch wasn't alone, which made Luz freak out as she could expect the interrogation to be harder this time.

The kidnappers at the other side of the door were trying to speak in low voice, but the walls were thin so both girls could hear what they were saying perfectly.

One female voice was grumbling at the witch that had been in their room minutes earlier.

"The guard has weird ears ma'am and refuses to talk, the other witch didn't wake up yet so we can't use her."

"Weird ears?! I can't believe I trusted you to choose a target and it ends up being the wrong one. One other thing, perhaps next time tell your comrade to go easy on the sleeping spell, we have no time to lose."

The door opened, filling the room with the light coming from the other side. The imposing figure joined them in the room slowly and Luz instinctively got closer to Amity, scared of who the back up could be, but Amity didn't freeze, she simply didn't take her eyes of the door, people always told her to look the enemy in the eye and that's what she was going to do. Luz was counting on her.

The witch was looking at the floor as she closed the door behind her. She was probably trying to be intimidating, by not letting the prisoners see her face. Both couldn't figure out who that mysterious woman was, the lack of light wasn't helping either, but she was tall and had long hair.

"Let me see who we got here."

When she looked up to finally reveal her identity, everyone in the room froze as the shock filled their minds.

"Miss Lilith?!" Luz growled in confusion. She thought she was dead, but she was there in front of them both.

Even if she was thankful for her help years ago in the Emperor's castle, she still couldn't find the strength to forgive her from kidnapping Eda, and now both of them. Couldn't that woman stop kidnapping people?!

It was true that Luz was used as bait for Eda, therefore she felt guilty of what happened to her mentor, but she was captured by the Emperor because of her own sister in the first place.

Amity thought she was strong enough, but it was a lie. She couldn't believe that one of her ghosts was in front of her. She saw Lilith disappear out of her sight when she was trying to slow Belos down, some living tentacles grabbed her mentor and took her away into the darkness. The last thing she remembers is Lilith's screams calling for her and then disappearing into the distance as the Emperor approached her and hurt her.

"Eda's human? You're... Here?! And... Amity Blight... You shouldn't be here."

"We wouldn't be if you all hadn't kidnapped us." Amity felt cold, her stomach ached and her thoughts didn't leave her alone. She was happy to know that Lilith was alive after all that happened but she also wanted the powerful witch to get out of her face.

"Raum! Come here immediately!" Lilith demanded as she took her hand to her forehead clearly tense.

Someone opened the door and a witch took a peek inside as he waited for Lilith to tell him the reason she needed him.

"Yes, raven Lady?"

"I really hate that code name, but that's besides the point. Why didn't you tell me we were following a human?! Humans aren't guards, this was all for nothing!"

"Well miss, she's wearing the uniform they use and I didn't really see a human in all my life so it could be anyone." The witch that went by the name of Raum, was confused and startled, they had been caught off guard too, he just did his job and didn't notice any details. They needed a guard and here the guard was.

Lilith looked at both of her prisoners and Raum, then decided to dismiss him so she could be alone with the girls. If Luz had that uniform and didn't belong to her, it meant that her protégé had followed the career her parents wanted for her.

She dropped down to her knee as she faced them both. She had let her red roots grow back again and her hair was a bit curly, but Luz didn't care about any of this, the most noticeable feature that Luz couldn't take her eyes of was her right eye, it was empty and completely grey just like Eda's. The only way Lilith found to save her from being an Owl beast forever was to share her curse.

She tried to make things right in the end, but they wouldn't be wrong in the first place if it wasn't for her fear of losing against her sister years ago. Luz didn't want to admit, but deep down she thought the witch in front of her deserved that fate.

"So... I apologize for the misunderstanding. Some witches here are oblivious and sometimes mess missions up. We are under a lot of pressure." Lilith was trying to explain her point of view, but Luz was annoyed at it. She just wanted to go home.

"Just get to the point Lilith. You need a guard and I'm the one you need." Amity was feeling so many emotions at the same time for seeing her mentor for the first time in years. "Just let Luz go."

"There's no need to get all defensive Amity. I'm not going to hurt any of you, we just need some informations to save our comrades."

"Save?" Luz asked incredulous. Who could they possibly want to save. Were they the good guys?

"There's a lot of witches in the comformatorium that need saving or they will be petrified soon. There's no way I'm letting them perish like that, they deserve so much better..." She grabbed Amity's hands, pleading for her help. "That's why we need your help Amity. You know how we can get in and out safely, without losing any more good people."

"How can you call yourself good people if you just took us in by force?!" Amity didn't want to hear any more of it.

_'That's right Blight, don't trust that traitor, she betrayed the Emperor she doesn't deserve your trust.'_

_'Shut up stupid voice! I don't obey you!'_

"You really look desperate." Luz believed Lilith, she couldn't possibly be making this up. She rose in opposition to the Emperor years ago and he definitely didn't want to see her face ever again, so she was clearly on the good side of the coin. "Being petrified must be awful."

"It is Luz! We just want our freedom back. We want to be able to use all the magic we want whenever we want. Belos contained us for far too long, he needs to fall."

Luz liked the sound of that, Belos destroyed many lives, even destroyed her chance to be with Amity. They both had something in common: taking Belos down.  
Lilith got up on her feet and took her hand to her chest.

"You could both join us and help us defeat Belos."

"You can't possibly be talking serious right now. I don't want to be part of any of this. I just want to do my job and Luz has nothing to do with your cause."

"Amity... Perhaps we should listen to her. What harm can it possibly do?"

"What harm?!"

_'Petrification, death, petrification, d e a t h...'_

There was nothing Amity feared more than being petrified or losing Luz, how could the human be so naive and join them?

"Amity... Amityyy?" Luz asked as she waved her binded hands in front of the young witch, snapping Amity out of her thoughts.

The witch screamed in terror and fell to the ground, receiving worried stares from both of them. She was sweating and breathing loudly.

"Let me go, Lilith!"

"Fine. I will, but there's someone you should meet first."

Lilith had no time to lose, if her best student didn't want to help them, there was only one thing that could perhaps change her mind.

The Clawthorne witch helped Amity getting up, then did the same with Luz. She apologized for not freeing their hands, it was too risky to simply let them walk around freely. The other witches wouldn't like to see them loose.

Amity understood that, after all if she had to look over a prisoner she would do the same. As she opened the door, both girls flinched a bit at the light coming from the other side of the room, they were too used to the dark environment. Lilith let them leave the little room and followed them.

The building was a bit dark and hulking, it had an old appearance, some wooden planks could also be seen broken in the floor and one of the wooden walls had a big hole in it that was covered by bushes, the hole probably worked as a stealthy exit. The only existing lighting in the place was some light balls floating in the air.

Luz saw a few witches walking around the place. They all seemed busy with their own roles, although some of them were sleeping in front of a fire pit or simply enjoying the light of the moon entering a skylight located in the middle of the ceiling.

When they saw them, the members started whispering behind their back and Amity couldn't stop thinking about what could they be talking about? Did they recognize her? But most importantly, were they judging Luz?

"Are you okay Amity?" Luz asked as she looked at her pale face. "You worried me back there."

Here she was worrying about Luz, when in fact, the human girl was worried about her. She wanted Luz to stop worrying, but her mouth had other ideas and it all came out wrong.

"If you were worried you wouldn't even consider joining the Wild Witches." She said, piercing her with words as she digged her nails in her palms. Amity couldn't stop kicking herself mentally for acting like a jerk as she saw the sad look on the human's face.

"Oh so you heard about us. I'm not surprised." Lilith asked, completely oblivious to Amity's venomous response towards Luz.

"Of course. I'm a guard, I know everyone that is wanted by the coven, and your Wild Witch Association is no exception." Amity said nonchalantly.

"You know we aren't doing anything wrong Amity. We just want equality and freedom."

"It's funny that you're saying that now, because a few years ago there was nothing you liked more than the Emperor."

"Things... Change." Lilith knew that what Amity was saying was true. But he betrayed her. She thought he would heal her sister like he promised for ages, but it turns out he wanted to kill her, and that was enough reason for her to turn her back at him.

Lilith kept giving them directions. Luz observed the many sections of that building. There was a section in a corner that was filled with maps and scrolls with different spells, probably spells Emperor Belos didn't allow. Two witches were writing on the maps and chatting with each other as both tried to create a plan.

The three of them got to a big room, it had a few benches in it, so they took the hint and sat on one of them.

Lilith sat in front of them and asked one of the witches that was sorting out some supply boxes to call for the presence of the Trickster. Amity didn't really know who was so important that she wanted her to meet.

"While we wait, we better just talk for a bit."

"I have nothing to talk about Lilith."

"I knew you would say that. What about you, little human? Also why are you wearing Blight's uniform?"

"It's a funny story. I simply needed new clothes and since I'm wanted by the Emperor's coven Amity let me borrow hers, so I could hide my ears and such."

"I see. I suppose everyone is wanted by Belos at some point."

If there weren't many voices talking and whispering, the silence surrounding them would have been awkward.  
Soon Luz got curious about something.

"I noticed you give orders to these witches. Are you the leader of this organization?"

"I indeed am... But just recently. The real leader was... Captured and what happened next you can probably guess... So I'm taking his place. Tiberius saved me from the comformatorium threr year ago after I was arrested by Belos. At that time when I was there he didn't petrify witches that frequently so I was lucky enough to get help before he started having that sick practice. I transformed into my cursed form and stayed like that for all the time I was arrested but when Tiberius showed up he thought I deserved a second chance...."

"Everyone needs a second chance I guess..." Luz looked sadly towards Amity from the corner of her eye.

After all, the human gave up on her convictions for Amity, she still hated the Emperor, but she didn't feel resentment towards her for joining his coven.

"Beast form?! So it was you that took Luz away from me?!" Amity chimed in frustrated about the truth.

"I was. But even after practicing to control the curse, sometimes it's still hard to control that forsaken form and I was tired of being a raven for so long so I just tried to complete the mission fast. When I got here I had to rest for a while so I didn't see that Luz was... Well Luz. Apologies human."

"It's... Okay Lilith." Luz smilled awkwardly. The witch didn't really need to apologize, but the way Amity was acting so protectively towards her was what made things weird. Is she angry at her or not? Luz couldn't tell anymore.

The human noticed a familiar girl approaching the benches.

"Raven Lady! I finished feeding the baby Griffins. They are sleeping now so we don't need to worry about them for the whole night. They will stay quiet like a baby lamb."

"Thank you, Viney. They need to be on top condition at all times."

"Viney?!" Luz shakily got up and went in the girl's direction, staring at her. She had her usual bangs that almost obscured her eyes like a sheepdog.

"Luz the human?!" What are you doing here?" She cheerfully asked as she scratched the back of her head. She wasn't expecting one of her old friends to be here, mainly someone that joined her in the delinquent track years ago.

"I'm in trouble like usual." Luz tried to joke about the situation she was in as she showed the magical circle around her hands.

"Just like old times, huh?" Viney couldn't believe that her comrades kidnapped Luz. She couldn't see what they needed her for.

_'Is everyone part of this lost cause? Like seriously, they are so foolish. Belos is too powerful.'_

Amity couldn't stop feeling bitter about all this, that place gave her the chills. A while back it was Luz that was scared, but she was the one frustrated to be there now. Apparently the human was having fun and felt safer in a place she could see familiar faces, but that didn't comfort Amity not even a bit. Did she forget they were prisoners?

"Viney you probably will need to wait for Trickster before going home." Lilith alerted, interrupting their conversation.

"Huh... Why?"

"I want Amity Blight to _'meet' her"_. Lilith was giving her a look, she didn't want the Blight to find out.

"Amity Blight... The youngest Blight?" She looked past Luz and saw the annoyed girl sitting on the bench. This was definitely a bad thing.

"I'll stay there. Just in case..." Viney tensed up and Luz noticed it, but she didn't have time to ask since the girl waved goodbye and rushed towards the supply boxes.

In seconds she was helping her fellow witch, but she was always looking in the direction they came from. That was definitely an excuse to run away from their attention. Luz sat back down and waited like the others.

Soon the person Lilith was waiting for showed up in the building. She noticed Viney right away so she went in her direction and greeted her once more, kissing her on the cheek.

"How is my Griffin girl doing?"

"I'm good but worried. Your sister is here."

"My sister what?"

"She was captured a few hours ago..."

Viney tilted her head in the benches direction and that's when the green haired girl saw Amity not far away from them, so she approached them just like Lilith requested, each step she gave was making her more nervous than the last.

"Goodnight trickster! We were waiting for you."

"Okay so let's see who this trickster miss is after all."

Amity rolled her eyes and looked to the side, that's when she saw Emira standing in front of her with a cape covering her tall body and two braids cascading down her back.

"Hey mittens..." The girl tried to step towards her little sister but Amity quickly fell back of the bench as she tried to step away from her.

"Argh... No. Not you." Amity couldn't tell if what she was seeing was real or just an effect of hitting with her head on the floor or the sleeping spell. Perhaps this was just a dream.

"Let me help you." Emira tried to get her up, but Amity slapped her hands away from her, she didn't want her help.

"I can get up alone."

Luz also tried to help her but she slightly shrugged her off, she struggled for a while, but soon she was up on her feet again. She was very tense so Luz didn't take it very personally, she knew that Amity wasn't acting like her normal self.

"I didn't know you were here Emira?" Luz asked surprised for finally seeing the only Blight that she hadn't met yet until now.

"I'm not here all the time. I have an Illusion coven to take care of... It's a lot of paper work." Emira was so worried about her little sister, that knowing that Luz was back wasn't shocking enough.

"Yeah it definitely is a lot of paper work. So much that you need to abandon your family." Amity said with her voice deep and venomous.

"Little sister, let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain. You left us. You left Edric." Her eyes narrowed with anger.

"There's no excuse for what I did, but I had my reasons Amity." Emira tried to stay calm, but her little sister was hurting her with the truth.

"What reasons? This lost cause?" Amity approached her sister, making her move backwards a little. Viney saw how close they were so she jumped in.

"Amity. Calm down okay?" She separated them, placing her hands between them.

"Honey. It's okay. I can deal with this."

"Honey? So you didn't even tell us you had a partner?! How many things did you hide from us?"

The air was tight with all the tension. Lilith didn't know that both sisters weren't close anymore. The only thing she knew was that Emira hid her Wild witch identity just like all the other members. Looks like she messed things even more. Amity wouldn't join them now for sure.

"I'm sorry Emira. I didn't know you had some family conflict going on."

"It's fine Miss Lilith. This had to happen sooner or later." She looked to her leader and then back to Amity. She was looking at the ground with her eyes closed. She was so disappointed on her older sister.

"Viney dear. Could you cast a time bubble on us? I need to speak to my sister alone."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Just count one minute and then bring us back. Also. Lilith. Could you unbind my sister? She's no threat."

Viney and Lilith exchanged glances and nodded. Emira was smart, she knew what she was doing, so if she wanted to speak to her sister in private, she would do it.

Lilith drew a circle and soon Amity could move her hands freely again. She rubbed her wrists in relief.

"Oh I can move too." Amity still heard Luz cheerful voice before an orange bubble surrounded her and Emira. Everyone in that place disappeared. Only them existed there.

"What is this?" Amity looked around trying to figure out what kind of magic this was. She never saw a spell like this before.

"It's a time bubble. Here the time moves slower. Basically one minute in the real world is one hour inside this bubble. It's one of the many spells inside the book of forbidden magic that Belos tried so hard to hide from our kind."

"Impressive. But I'm pretty sure you didn't bring me here to talk about those flashier spells." Amity casted a fire spell, her hands had purple fire balls on them. She was so angry at Emira that she wanted to take it out on her.

Edric was so fragile ever since she left him, it was unforgivable. Emira knew she was challenging her, but she turned her body and sat down on the floor. Refusing to fight.  
Amity was taken aback by her attitude. Emira never refused a challenge before.

She patted the floor next to her. Gesturing her little sister to sit down next to her. Amity shook her hands, dissipating the flames in an instant. She then decided to join her sister on the floor. There was no point in attacking someone that refused to fight back.

"I know you wouldn't hurt me Amity. Besides I had no chance of winning against you. We both know I just control illusions." Emira smilled at her, but Amity didn't smile back.

"At least you lead a Coven..." The youngest witch brought her knees to her chest, crossed her arms and rested her head on them. Her sister was so much better than her. Her parents wanted her to be the leader of the Emperor's Coven too, but she ended up taking the place of an useless guard because of her actions 5 years ago.

"We aren't here to see who is better than the other. I just want to explain everything to you mittens." Emira squeezed her little sister's shoulder, trying to reassure her.

"Go on... I'm all ears."

Emira's had an expression of happiness printed on her face when she saw that her sister was willing to listen, perhaps even talk to her like they did years before.

"Well... I'm sorry for leaving you two." She proceeded to explain. "I should have never left you or even say those awful things to Edric, but we both know how clingy he is. I needed him to be far away from me and hurting his feelings was the only way I found to keep you safe."

"Nice job... he was never the same again." Amity noticed that her sister was bitting her lips in shame, she wanted to do something noble but ended up hurting people anyways. "You basically chose this cause instead of your family... It's hard to understand this Emira. I know our parents didn't deserve you, but Edric and I were always on your side."

"I had to protect you both from the Emperor, they could go after you to get to me after and obviously I wasn't going to tell you that I was against his ideals. You were training to serve him. I couldn't simply destroy your future."

"Perhaps you should have..." Being a guard was the worst, what was the point? Using all types of magic? Was it even worth the price?

They stayed in silence for a while, but then Amity decided to get up. She understood what her sister wanted to do, but in the end it was done so poorly.

"You and Viney... Did you join this group because of her too?"

"I... Yes. I did. I couldn't let her go through this alone. She refused to seal her magic at the age of 18 so your coven was after her. You know I never liked the Emperor so when Viney told me there was a place we could be accepted and fight that monster back, I didn't think twice."

"Anyways... It's not with me that you should be concerned about. Edric is the one still suffering to this very day."

"I know..." Emira got up as well, walked up to her little sister and ruffled her hair. "I should have done things differently, but I thought this had been the best option at the time."

"Everyone makes bad choices after all..." Amity couldn't bother with having her sister's hand on her at that point, she wanted to sleep and she missed her sister. It was good to see her again even if a part of her wanted to slap her in the face.

"I brought you here in hopes that we could have an honest conversation and then maybe, hug it out just like when we were younger. So what do you say Mittens?"

A minute later Viney did as Emira told her and ended the time bubble, making both girls appear in the room again. Surprisingly to everyone they were hugging and not fighting.

"Awwww!" Luz took her hands to her face and gasped in awe. They were being friendly to each other. It was such a relief to her heart.

When Amity noticed that they weren't alone anymore she pulled away from the hug. The girl hated to show affection in public, it was a weakness.

"So is everything alright?" Viney asked as she placed her hand on Emira's back, rubbing it in the process.

"Yes. Everything is fine for now. I explained everything to Amity."

"Good! So what do you think about joining us now Amity?" Lilith got up from the bench and clasped her hands together hopeful of a positive answer. "Your help would be crucial to save our fellow witches."

Amity crossed her arms annoyed at her persistence, she was being a bit indelicate considering she just went through a roller coaster of emotions.

"I told you, this is not my fight. I have nothing to do with it..."

Emira and Viney looked at each other concerned about the following days. They would still save the witches but without the fundamental informations a guard can give it would be much harder to accomplish the mission.

"Huh... I didn't want to interrupt, but I would like to help you fight the Emperor!" Luz was done with just listening, she had to take action. "There's not much I can do, but I have glyphs! And I'm willing to do what you say miss Lilith!"

"Luz!" Amity couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"What?"

"You can't join them, it's too dangerous! And this is not your fight."

"If no one does anything, things won't change Amity. I live here now, so it's my fight too."

Amity tried to bring Luz to reason, but it was in vain, the human was just too stubborn.

"You know what? Fine. I'm not your mom to tell you what to do, do whatever you want human."

The witch turned her back to everyone, leaving Luz puzzled stare behind, as she was about to move Lilith summoned a binding rope around her arms and torso.

"Seriously?!"

"We can't let you just leave like that. You can't know where we are mittens." Emira gave the first step to explain, probably she was the only one in that room that Amity would hear at that point. "I'll take you back to the place you were in a few hours ago."

"Fine."

"We will contact you as soon when we need you Luz, thank you for your collaboration." Lilith showed the girl a small smile, she wasn't a guard, but her help wouldn't be wasted. "Emira take them to Porter so he can cover their eyes, please."

"Ay ay Raven Lady."

They walked for a while and the tension was suffocating, Amity didn't mumble a word and it was Emira's but mostly Luz fault.

"Amity don't be mad. I just want to help people."

_'and when are you going to help me?!'_

_'I just want to protect you, you fool!'_

Amity didn't say a word, swallowing them as if they were pieces of glass. So hard to swallow, so painful to keep in.

"You don't want to talk... I can take the hint..." Luz arms started twitching showing her anxiousness. 

Emira that was listening to everything, approached Luz and whispered in her ear.

"Just give her time. There's a lot of things inside her head right now."

Luz sadly nodded, sometimes words didn't fix anything, people just needed time to get used to new realities.

They got closer to a witch that was peacefully sitting on top of a box as he wrote on a notebook, was he... studying? Did wild witches study? When Luz noticed the black curly hair and dark skin of the witch, she jogged on his direction.

"Gus? You're here too?"

"Ahhh!" The young boy jumped on his seat as he let his notebook fall to the floor. He wasn't expecting to be interrupted at that moment. "...Luz? Luz the human?" My friend Luz?!"

"Yeah that's me boy. I'm back! To be honest this wasn't the way I wanted us to meet a-" She was interrupted by Gus arms around her, he was hugging her tight.

"I'm so happy to see my old friend again."

"Me too Gus. Wow how much have you grown." Luz hugged the boy back, noticing that he was almost her height, it was impressive considering he was the smallest of the group just 5 years ago. Fortunately Luz could squeeze him with her arms since they weren't binded this time, unlike Amity, so she could give all the tight hugs she wanted.

"Were you studying or something little guy?" Luz asked curious as she glanced towards the notebook.

"Oh I'm just preparing some classes. I'm a teacher's assistant at Hexside at the moment so I need to get ready."

"That's so cool Gus!"

"Yeah... but... Why are you here again...?" Gus scratched his head, incredulous for seeing Amity and Luz in front of him in that very place. He grabbed his notebook from the dusty floor and cleaned it up. He hated to get his precious notes dirty.

"Augustus do you know that mission we had to get a guard, because we needed to get informations to save other witches? Well Amity is that guard." Emira replied to the young boy, taking her hand to Amity's shoulder in a reassuring way. "She's not ready to help us though, so we are back to square one."

If her older sister was trying to make her feel better it wasn't working. All the witches there were going to have a bad impression of her, Gus included.

"Oh... Well. Perhaps she will change her mind in the near future." Gus winked enthusiastically, he was still his optimistic self and that brought memories to Luz. She was happy to see her little guy hadn't changed.

"Anyways Gus. We need you to cover their eyes to keep our hideout a secret, the usual."

"Will do Emira."

He placed his notebook on top of the box and drew a circle, some bandages fell on his hands, he was going to cover their eyes with some common bandages, but these ones had a glyph Luz never saw before.

"This has a sealing glyph over the bandages ensuring they wouldn't be removed. But it's just temporary girls."

"Just get it over with Porter." Amity had no time for this. She was so done at everything and everyone.

They finally had their eyes covered and it was a complete nightmare for Amity. She could only focus on the sounds and for now she only heard loud voices and whispers. She was sure they were talking about her or Luz.

"Can I borrow your staff Raum?"

"Sure trickster, be my guest!"

Now that they couldn't see, Emira had to help them out of the hideout, through a big hallway towards the main entrance. When they were finally outside Amity felt her arms free again, Lilith had snapped her fingers and cancel the spell which was good.

Emira cracked her neck and stretched out her arms as she prepared herself to fly. She knocked the staff's end on the ground before stepping back for a bit, the staff was finally hovering above the ground freely. Getting them both on the staff was going to be a hard task.

"Hum, Gus. Could you give us a hand here?" She called from outside the building and Gus rushed to her in a heartbeat, he knew what she meant so he used a levitation spell and made them sit on the staff correctly. Both gasped in surprise, they weren't expecting to lose gravity like that.

"There. Nothing to worry about now ladies."

"Thanks Gus. Well then hold tight girls, let's go!" Emira shouted as she kicked off the ground sending the three of them towards the sky.

They soared above the Isles for a few minutes, but to Amity those minutes looked like hours because she couldn't see what was under her. Having Luz holding her waist tight from behind wasn't helping either. It made her face turn red from embarassment. She just wanted to sleep and erase that day from her memory.

Emira tried to stabilize the staff the best she could, she didn't have one of her own so the only few times she used them was when her friends lended her theirs. If she turned the staff too fast they could fall. The view under her feet helped her focus and relax though, she was sure she would take them safe and sound to the entrance of the Abysmal Woods like planned.

Soon she could see the tall trees from the forest, so she drove into their direction, landing shakily on the grass. They could finally leave the staff and go home, but not before Emira took their bandages off.

"Okay driving a staff is really stressful, I don't know how you are capable of controlling this thing mittens." She said as she started unwrapping the bandages on Amity's eyes.

"A lot of practice Em." Amity appreciated how Emira was trying to make things be normal again, but they just weren't. She forgave her, but wouldnt forget it.

"It's your turn now, Luz."

"Sweet sweet moonlight!" Luz was thrilled to be able to see again. Amity asked herself if Luz felt uneasy with the bandages on as well. The dark forced us to feel lonely, confused and Luz wasn't an exception considering she most of the time let her inner voices haunt her.

"I'm leaving now. Hope you change your mind soon Amity. You can make a difference. You can make it right."

"Pfff..." The young witch side glared her sister as she swinged one leg over the sturdy wood, they stepped back as the witch kicked the ground, sending the staff towards the sky once again.

The oldest Blight energetically waved them goodbye, Amity returned the motion hesitantly. She saw her sister fly away and leaving them both alone in the middle of the night.

"I'm so tired I just want to sleep."

Amity started making her way home. What would Edric say when they got home?

_'Argh this is just too much to take right now.'_

Luz could see that the witch in front of her was angry by the way she was walking fast, leaving a gap between them both.

"Amity... You should probably make some light. I don't want you to hit something and hurt yourself." Luz said looking down as she rubbed the back of her neck.

The witch stopped walking for a while, letting the human catch up to her.

_'I'm already hurting Noceda...'_

She then created a light ball, but didn't say a word, continuing to follow the path towards her house.

"I know you're angry Amity, but I just want to help your people the way I can."

"It's not your duty to help them. You don't need to compensate them by risking your life!"

Of course Amity was disappointed and a tad bit angry. She wanted her dearest human to be safe but she wanted to risk her life for strangers instead. How was she supposed to agree with that?!

"Once petrified there's no turning back Luz... But it looks like you want to be one of them..."

"Amity..." Luz could clearly see that petrifications bothered her, it was almost the same fate as being stuck in a cursed beast form. A fate worse than death itself.

Instead of starting an argument she just followed Emira's advice and gave her time. Perhaps she would be willing to talk about this another time.

When they got home and were about to open the door they were surprised by Edric that was standing right in the doorway. He had an worried frown on his face.

"By the Titan! Where have you been?! It's three in the morning!" Edric looked to both of them awaiting an answer.

"Edric... It's late. Can we please talk about this when I wake up? I need to sleep." Amity replied returning Edric's gaze with her own.

"Huh... What? You just show up here at this hour and don't even say a word and expect me to wait a few more hours for answers?!"

"Yes! I need to rest on my quiet and dark room, if you don't mind." Amity grunted, she had a heavy headache and wasn't in her best to explain everything that happened. She went past her brother and walked up the stairs to her bedroom, she was unnerved by his persistence. How could she tell him that she saw Emira?! She couldn't face him, not now.

"It's a long story Edric... But we are okay, don't worry about us, please. Just go to sleep." Luz calmly rubbed his arm, trying to calm him down.

As Amity entered her room she immediately walked over to her sleeping bag and laid down tiringly on it.

She hadn't the strength to take her clothes off. Her eyes drifted out towards the bright moon visible through the window. And thoughts began to scream on her head like they usually did.

She never meant to be cruel towards Luz. She just wanted her to know how important she was, the human couldn't simply risk her life for a lost cause.

_'I'm awful...'_

_'I should just do my job and leave Luz alone.'_

_'The wild witches don't know what they are doing!'_

So many thoughts... She hardly felt her right hand, it was numb and tingled again.

"Damn it... Not now." She yelped as she opened and closed her hand, but it was like it wasn't there. The moon could be seen through it.

_'Just sleep Blight, this is nothing but a dream. A bad dream.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't expecting to write some Emira/Viney scenes, but I know a lot of you ship them so I tried to make it the most believable I could, taking into consideration the situation the characters are in.  
> My fanfic is not about them, so sorry if the scenes aren't that satisfying.  
> Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! It was fun to write.  
> THANK YOU for all your support fellow readers!


	11. The origin of the Palisman part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big shout out for @Lassithedawg on INSTAGRAM, she edited this chapter by correcting any existing grammar mistakes and she also helped me pulling out some scenes so they would look smoother.  
> Her art is pretty good and her writing is amazing so please go FOLLOW her on instagram!  
> She is also writing the Fanfic called "A Witch with a Dark Side" on Archive of Our own, so go check it out!  
> Also this chapter was getting quite big so I decided to cut it in two. I will upload two parts.  
> NEXT PART WILL COME OUT TOMORROW!  
> THANK YOU for your support!

A streak of sunlight poked through the window of Amity's bedroom as a new morning greeted the Isles. She still felt tired when she opened her eyes. She was in luck though. With today being her second day off, which was definitely a gift from the Titan, she wouldn't have to get out of the house and could wear her pajamas all day.

Suddenly the thought of her brother bombarding her with questions about last night struck her. He would want to know about everything and wouldn't stop asking until he got the information he required. He was good at being stubborn and he was extremely proud of this quality that Amity hated so deeply. At that moment, the young witch wished she had a duty to fulfill. That way, at least she wouldn't have to face her brother.

How would she even begin to tell him the truth? Emira had hurt him so bad in the past, so there was no way he was going to accept this easily. What if he got even more depressed? The thought terrified Amity.

"Are you awake?" the human asked her as she looked over at Amity.

Amity looked back at her and noticed that she seemed wide awake. Had Luz slept well?

"Yeah, but I would like to sleep more, in all honesty," Amity put her hands behind her head and sighed. "It doesn't look like you slept much Luz..."

"Oh I did. I slept for a while, but since I didn't have Webster here with me I woke up quite a few times."

Of course. Last night Amity went to bed right away without even thinking about Luz's sleeping problem, ending up not detaching Webster from her staff. She was just too tired to remember. She felt awful. Luz needed her help to sleep and she had let her down.

"I'm sorry for that. I know how much you need Webster..."

Luz turned her body to the side, facing Amity with a sad smile on her face.

"Don't worry about that Amity. Your presence helps too... but knowing that we aren't in good terms doesn't..."

How could they be in good terms? Luz was attempting to jump headfirst into danger, while everything Amity was trying to do was to protect the girl she always loved. Nobody on their perfect mind would accept this. Right?

Amity couldn't find any words in response, still feeling bitter for last night. So, instead of messing things up even more, she silently stood and made her way downstairs to find something to eat, leaving Luz alone in the room. Before entering the kitchen, she made a quick detour to retrieve her staff from the living room. As she unscrewed her Palisman from the staff, she noticed him coming back to life. He flew to her shoulder and rubbed his tiny face against her owner's.

"Missed you too, Webster."

Her bat chirped happily. He probably hated to be stuck in a piece of wood all day.

"Webster, go to Luz and keep her some company until she gets down to eat. I... didn't act correctly towards her... I'm really bad at this whole feelings thing..."

Her Palisman pouted sadly at her. Even if Webster couldn't talk, Amity felt like he understood her better than most people in her life.

"Just go, buddy. I'll be alright."

Her bat hesitated, but he flew upstairs anyways, squeezing inside the room by the barely opened door.

She might not be the best with words, but perhaps her actions would suffice. Webster would be by Luz's side. Even if she was still angry at the human, she wanted her to be happy and, most importantly, safe.

When she entered the kitchen, she noticed it was empty. Her brother was nowhere to be found. Normally he woke up before her, so this was an oddity.

_'I guess I can have a few more moments of peace and quiet before Edric shows up.'_

She wasn't really that hungry, so some cereal would suffice. She grabbed the cereal box from inside the kitchen pantry. As she was preparing to get a clean bowl from the cupboard, she noticed there was already one resting on top of the dinner table.

_'There's a bowl here? But it's clean. I guess Edric forgot to organize all the dishes last night.'_

When she grabbed it to use it for her breakfast, it shapeshifted at her touch. She now found herself pinching her brother's cheek.

"Edric?!" Amity pulled her hand back, almost letting the cereal box fall because of the jump scare her brother unconsciously prepared for her.

The young boy was startled by the sudden touch of her little sister, that's when he noticed it was morning.

"Good morning Amity," he greeted her as he rubbed his eyes and stretched his back, composing himself for the new day to come.

"Why were you sleeping in the kitchen? And why were you pretending to be... a bowl?" Amity stared at him puzzled. Her brother could be so weird sometimes.

"After what happened last night, I couldn't really sleep despite Luz claiming everything was fine. So I just decided to stay here until I fell asleep." Edric got up from the chair and decided to make a coffee while he explained the situation to his confused sister.

"That still doesn't explain why you were a bowl."

"Oh that! Right. I was trying to challenge myself to see for how long I could fake my appearance. I fell asleep in the middle of a transformation I guess, but the good thing is that I stayed all night as a bowl so it was a win for me."

"Improving your illusion skills. Smart."

Amity was proud of her brother in a way. He was extremely good with illusions from the very first day he started learning magic, he didn't need to try harder to get better because he was exceptional already, but it was good to see that he wanted to be stronger.

She sat down on a chair and rested her head on one hand as she watched her brother prepare the warm bitter drink that a lot of adults enjoyed so much. Usually the brown beverage her brother loved to drink wasn't something she liked to swallow herself, but she was so tired that this time she asked for a cup too so she could stay awake. Her brother was surprised, but he clearly knew why her little sister wanted to drink it.

"Thanks," Amity sighed as he handed her a mug and a bag of sugar. Edric knew how much Amity hated bitter food or drinks, so sugar was essential. He proceeded to grab a bowl for her since it was apparent she forgot to get it. She was more distracted than usual, and he knew it had something to do with whatever happened last night with her and Luz's unexpected absence.

He sat in front of her, took a sip of his drink, and cleared his throat. It was time to talk whether Amity wanted to or not. She noticed he was about to start asking questions, and he seemed to expect her to speak first, but how could she? Tension was starting to take over her entire body.

Edric took a deep breath and then let out a sigh before speaking.

"Amity... about last night..."

"I can't tell you about it Edric... It could hurt you if I told you...," Amity cut off her brother's speech, biting her lip in worry as she thought about the possibility of him getting hurt anyways.

'What if he thinks that I don't trust him? That's completely not the case.'

"I was worried because you two didn't say where you would be and never said at what hours you would get back. Why would I get hurt?" Edric was utterly confused and even more curious now. Then something clicked.

"Oh...? Oh!" He got up and snapped his fingers in enlightenment. "Did you two go on a date? Are you dating?" He asked, taking his hand under his chin and giving her the smuggest look she had ever seen.

"Wait- we what?!" Amity asked, shocked into embarrassment at the assumption. Of course she would love that Luz felt the same way about her, but Edric was misunderstanding the situation.

"It's okay, Mittens. Now I understand why you thought I would be hurt. Since I'm still single and not together with Bona, you thought that if I knew you were with Luz, I would feel miserable. It's understandable, little sister! " Edric approached her and rested his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "You know you can tell anything to your favorite brother."

Of course Edric was her favorite brother. She only had one after all. Their relationship had its ups and downs, but she could always count on him. And he did just say she could tell him everything, like, five seconds ago... Perhaps it would be best if she just spit out the truth?

"Edric... You got it all wrong..."

"Huh? I did? Well, what a bummer, but it wouldn't be the first time." He rested his hands on his waist as he waited for Amity to enlighten him, "You have a lot to explain then, little sister. You scared me to death! What were you two doing until 3am anyways?"

"We... well, we were kidnapped."

"You what?!"

Edric said as he reached for her chin moving Amity's face from left to right. "Are you hurt?! We should report this to the police... Wait... But you're a guard, you're basically the person we should report the case to...," Edric spoke quickly, processing the situation.

"Calm down Edric. You're squeezing my cheeks too hard. I'm fine. Luz is fine," Amity said as she moved his hands away from her pale face. "There's no need to report anything. It's unnecessary."

"How can you say that so lightly? I know you can defend yourself, but still this is serious. We need to-"

"I saw Emira yesterday!"

"What?"

"Her group buddies 'kidnapped' us by mistake when we were on our way home," Amity explained as she made air quotes on the 'kidnapped' word. "They thought Luz was a guard, so they took her, and since I was with her at that moment, they took me too. Emira was there... Edric?"

Amity expected a reply, anything, but her brother was speechless, frozen in place after hearing what she had said. Then he shakily approached the chair and sat down again, staring at the table as a lot of thoughts went through his head.

"Edric?" she spoke softly, not really sure if he would be okay after hearing the truth.

Edric couldn't believe what he just heard. How was it possible? Emira didn't want to see them both ever again to supposedly take care of her precious Illusion Coven, and now she kidnaps people for a living? What was going on?

"I should probably explain... You're very pale and I don't like that look on your face," Amity saw him tremble right in front of her as he clenched his fists in confusion.

Amity mentioned the Wild Witches Association once or twice in the past. When she got back from work, she usually talked about her job and things related to it during dinner, so Edric was familiar with the group in question. Amity didn't tell him about Lilith or Viney though. She thought his brother didn't need more revelations at this moment.

She explained the reason behind the kidnapping and why the wild witches needed her help to save some comrades, but Edric wasn't expecting Emira to be a part of it.

She wanted to protect them both? That was her excuse?

Knowing that their sister had kept secrets from both him and Amity made his blood boil. He could understand the reason why she did what she did, but he couldn't forgive how much she hurt him in the process.

There was something he couldn't disagree on though, Emira's intentions to save and protect the Boilanders. She wanted things to change, but hurting her family in the process was a horrible price to pay.

"Emira claims that they can take the Emperor down... but I just don't know and I definitely can't betray him...," Amity tapped her fingers anxiously on the table, her thoughts finally catching up with her.

'You wouldn't dare betray the Emperor, would you Blight?'

'You should be loyal to him, it's your duty.'

She really hated when those thoughts haunted her.

"I know where you stand Amity... You don't have to explain that to me. You're scared of collaborating with them... It's obvious."

Edric rubbed his nose in frustration. How was he supposed to react to all this? Should he just stay angry? Should he pretend like nothing happened?

"The worst part of all this is that Luz wants to join their group too. Can you believe that? She's so reckless."

Amity cut off her brother's thoughts. He was surprised by such a statement, but he should have expected it at some point.

"Actually. After all that happened these past few years, I can believe it."

"How can you say that?" Amity couldn't believe that her brother was just admitting that he didn't find it shocking for Luz to put herself in danger.

"Well... after all that Luz went through here in the Isles because of the Emperor, it's no surprise that she would want him gone. What would you do in her place? If you knew you had the chance to eliminate the threat once and for all right in front of your eyes?"

Amity didn't reply, she didn't exactly know how to. Edric did have a point in all he was saying.

They didn't talk for a few seconds, the only sounds that could be heard were the clock ticking and their slurping noises.

"I see we are on the same page little sister...," he chuckled, getting up from the chair.

He made his way towards the living room, still shaking a bit as a result from the shocking news about Emira.

Amity chugged her remaining coffee and rushed to the room her brother was in as she waited for him to continue his speech. He was looking out the window and appreciating the view of a new morning.

"...We don't know how to respond to their actions, because we don't want them to get hurt and we also don't accept their decisions."

"Well... What are you going to do now that you know this? And what should I do with Luz?" Amity stood anxiously next to him as she waited for answers, but silence filled the room for a few moments. She didn't dare say anything, her brother was probably thinking deeply about what he should say, so she didn't want to stop his way of thinking.

Edric looked at her and started talking once again.

"Well, even if it pains me to know that Emira left us, she did it for a good reason. So perhaps instead of holding a grudge, I suppose the minimum we can do is be there for them as they do what they feel they have to do."

"That's actually very mature of you, Edric."

Her brother was probably right. While Emira and Luz were rebelling against the Emperor, she was just acting like his puppet, his loyal dog, not doing anything to stop him. If she kept doing her job like she always has, she wasn't better than him. So, even if she didn't accept Luz's choice... She would try and respect it. And even if she didn't join the Wild Witches like Lilith expected her to do, she would still help Luz any way she could.

"I thought I lost my twin sister because I was a disgrace, but now I know the truth. I won't lose her a second time. So don't lose Luz, Amity. If you like her, you should be there for her," Edric looked at his little sister with determination as he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

His words overflowed with conviction and his aura comforted her a lot. He was doing a better job than her parents ever did.

Amity couldn't hide the shine in her eyes as she heard those words come out of her brother's mouth.

Suddenly both witches heard Luz steps coming down the staircase. The youngest witch turned around and saw the human scratching Webster's chin as he rested on her head. She looked sad though, and it was likely due to Amity.

"Good morning guys... Sorry for stepping in. I didn't know you were in the middle of a conversation."

"Luz! Huh... what did you hear?" Amity's heart skipped a beat at the thought that the human girl might have heard the last sentences Edric blurted out in the middle of the living room.

"Not much really. I was too focused on my own thoughts," the girl rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed for showing up in the living room at what appeared to be such a dire moment.

"Actually we just finished talking, Luz. You didn't interrupt or anything," Edric went past Amity and approached the human girl. He held his hand to her head and removed Webster from her hair, "Come on little buddy. We should let them both talk in private!"

Edric really liked to tease his sister. How Amity hated him for that.

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need me!" he raised his hand in the air, already with his back turned to them.

"You will still be listening in from there. There's nothing private about this situation!" Amity's face was red with frustration. He clearly knew the walls in that house practically had ears so he would just pretend not to listen to their conversation. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't think properly when around Luz.

"What do you want to talk about Amity?" Luz sat down on the couch and Amity noticed how she was slightly shaking her leg. Was Luz nervous as well?

"I... I don't really know how to start."

"If you're thinking about kicking me out, it's fine. Really... I understand."

Luz was looking down, as she clenched her fists around her pajama pants. She just wanted to help people. Making Amity angry was never her intention.

"What? Luz, you got it all wrong. That's not why Edric wants us to talk!"

"Then what can it possibly be?" the girl tilted her head in confusion.

Amity frowned as the reality hit her. Now was the moment for her to show that she was by Luz's side, that she would help her in any way that she could, but what could she say exactly? The witch breathed deeply with her eyes closed as she tried to think about something that could redeem her attitude of last night, besides apologizing of course.

That's when she remembered the conversation they all had together at the Owl House the day before. It was so obvious. She knew what she had to do.

"I want to be on good terms with you, Luz...," Amity started saying as she drew a big circle in the middle of the room with her eyes closed. The circle radiated a pink aura as the witch summoned the brown staff Luz claimed as hers. It floated in the air for a while, until it fell on Amity's hands. She opened her eyes, facing Luz with a blush in her face. The story King told them about the lovers that created that exact staff in the past was making her imagine them both together. It was such a comforting image.

"So Edric made me see that I was wrong. That I shouldn't be mad at you for your decision to join the Wild Witches. You clearly have your reasons."

Luz raised an eyebrow puzzled and amazed. She didn't know what Amity wanted to prove with that incomplete staff or where her speech would take her. They both knew someone had to give up a bit of their magic. It was simply useless without a sacrifice, so to speak.

"Luz Noceda. I won't join the Wild Witches. I won't betray Belos like that...," she took her hand to her neck and rubbed it worriedly.

She was being too controlled by fear, she didn't want to end up like a lot of criminals did. Luz noticed how uneasy Amity was feeling, her anxiety was all over the place. She got up and tried to approach her in hopes of relaxing her a bit, but Amity held her hand up, stopping her. The witch needed to do this. She couldn't let Luz interrupt that crucial moment.

Amity took a deep breath and then dropped down to her knee, right in front of a surprised Luz. She kept her gaze on the floor. It was hard enough to do what she was about to do, so she definitely couldn't face Luz's beautiful brown eyes while she did it.

Deep down the green haired witch hoped for Luz to accept her help, even if she had acted like a jerk towards her before. But was Luz going to accept?

"... Even with all this going on, I still want to help you every way I can. I vowed to do just that, so I can't let my stubbornness speak louder."

She raised the staff up and then proceeded to finish her speech with her most sincere words.

"...When we were younger you told me that WE could fix things together. So now it's my turn, Noceda. Let's fix this staff together, let me help you become a stronger witch, just like you wanted to be. What do you say?" She looked up with a smile on her face and faced the human.

She was finally feeling less heavy after saying all that she had inside her chest, but something didn't seem right. Luz wasn't reacting or saying anything. So instead of feeling suffocated by her words, now she was feeling regret for even spitting them out in the first place. Her smile fell as the worst outcome was most certainly coming true.

"I... I knew this was stupid." Amity got up on her feet and tilted her head, she rubbed her arm as she felt the humiliation take over her. "Obviously you wouldn't want to have my magic in your staff. How foolish of me."

"Amity!"

Out of nowhere, Luz threw herself towards the witch, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her close as she gently rubbed her back. The human was rubbing her face on her and hugging her so tight that Amity's stomach couldn't resist but flutter at the feeling of her body pressed against Luz.

"I would love to. It would mean a lot to have your help." Luz let go of Amity and was now facing her with her hands resting on the witch's shoulders, "I just didn't say anything because I was so surprised by what you just said."

"Oh... so you would like my help?" Amity asked again, still unsure if Luz was actually saying yes or not. She could change her opinion at any moment after all.

"Yes Amity. There's no one I would love to do this more with, than you." Luz held out her hand, waiting for Amity to grab it. "It would be an honor."

The witch hesitated but ended up squeezing the human's hand anyways. She felt quite a few emotions in such a short time. Her nerves were shot and it was just the beginning of the day. Amity really needed to calm her heart down.

Webster soon entered the living room, much to Edric's dismay. He rushed to both girls, landed on her owner's hair and fluttered his wings cheerfully as he saw them holding hands.

"I'm happy to see that everything is okay again."

Edric showed up right after Webster, congratulating the two girls with his thumbs up. Luz noticed he had some kind of earplugs in his ears.

"I know you heard everything Edric. You don't need to pretend with that illusion."

Amity's face was completely red, but Edric couldn't guess if she was angry or embarrassed. Maybe both?

Luz saw the light coming out the window, the sun was getting warmer with each hour that passed, the day wasn't going to wait for them.

"We have to get going, Amity! Eda said it would take a few hours to reach the tree!"

"Yeah, that's true...," Amity crossed her arms when she noticed she was still holding Luz hand, trying to pretend that she wasn't enjoying the touch. "I should call her to get more information about the Palisman's tree location."

It took them less than an hour to get ready and prepare the supplies they would take for the long journey. According to Eda and King's directions, the tree was located inside a cave in one of the Titan's fingers.

"You need to go East and then you're supposed to find four mountains that correspond to the Titan's fingers, I'm not sure which finger it is in, though!" Eda explained everything as she squinted her eyes at the book King had shown them the day before, trying to find any other specific directions that could help.

"That's not much information, but thanks Eda. We will figure it out," Amity ended the call and drew a circle that made her scroll disappear.

The witch was waiting for the human outside, knocking the staff's end slightly on the ground as she grew impatient. At this rate she wouldn't be able to get to work on time tomorrow.

"I guess we are all on our own, Luz. We need to go!"

Finally the human showed up, she wore a small pouch around her leg, which had emergency glyphs stored in it. She also now carried a bag on her back.

"Why do you bring all that? You know I can just create a small portal and get food from it right? You don't need to bring that bag."

"It's a human thing, Amity! We humans enjoy taking bags full of food, clothes, and games when we go on trips."

"This is not exactly supposed to be fun Luz, but if you want to do it your human way, so be it."

The witch got on her staff and waited for Luz to do the same. It was impossible not to notice the dorky smile Luz had on her face. She was going to get a Palisman after all. If it was exciting for a witchling to get their very own friend for life, it was probably exhilarating for a human without a doubt.

Edric came out of the house just before they took off, telling them goodbye and reassuring his little sister that if she wasn't here by morning, he would be in charge of creating a replacement for her. With luck that wouldn't be necessary, but Amity appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

After the goodbyes were taken care off, Amity advised the human to hold on tight to her waist, knowing she sometimes got so distracted about everything around her that she could very possibly forget to hold on and rapidly turn into a human pancake.

Then she sweetly slapped Webster and waited for him to spread its majestic white wings, soon they were hovering just above the ground. She held the staff with a steady grasp, preparing herself for the long journey that awaited them. She took in a deep breath, kicked off the ground, and both girls soared into the air. The quest for Luz's palisman had begun.


	12. The origin of the Palisman part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big shout out for @Lassithedawg on INSTAGRAM, she edited this chapter by correcting any existing grammar mistakes and she also helped me pulling out some scenes so they would look smoother.  
> Her art is pretty good and her writing is amazing so please go FOLLOW her on instagram!  
> She is also writing the Fanfic called "A Witch with a Dark Side" on Archive of Our own, so go check it out!  
> THANK YOU for all the support fellow readers!

Amity went East, just like Eda told her to, but to her every place looked exactly the same. Forest, houses, and more forest, and yet no signs of any mountains that resembled gigantic fingers. She knew they had to have already been flying for a couple hours now to no avail.

"This is pointless. How are we supposed to find that tree anyways? And there's four fingers. We don't have time to search all of them."

"Don't you have a map or something like that?"

"Of course I have a map, I'm just not good at reading it," Amity blurted out in shame as she drew a circle that soon made a map appear, floating in the air alongside them as they flew.

Luz took the hint and checked the old looking scroll, the Boiling Isles were huge, but it wasn't a surprise. They were basically living on a gigantic Titan after all. The human took a glance at the corner of the map and noticed a small village was marked on the map near the bumps that were supposed to resemble the fingers.

"Oh! We could go to this village here!" Luz pointed at the village on the map. "They can probably tell us more about the tree."

"I don't see what we have to lose, so it's worth a shot," Amity's mood lifted, feeling more pumped about the trip now. At least now they had an actual chance of finding the tree, "Good job, Luz."

"It's nothing really."

"Where did you learn to read a map anyways?"

"Well back in my world, my mom told me everything a scout should know. I was never good at making friends, so I didn't belong to the scouts for long, even so, my mom didn't give up on me and wanted to teach me everything, since she had been a scout herself and according to her 'every kid should know these skills because they will need them in their life'."

"You're mom seems to be a very caring person. And she clearly worries for you since she called you the other day."

"Yeah, she's super cool. I just wish she wasn't with such an awful jerk."

Amity felt a sudden, yet subtle grip tighten around her waist. Thinking about her stepdad was stressing Luz out for sure.

"I know the feeling, Luz. There was nowhere I could go without having to face my demanding parents at some point. I just escaped when I spent time with you or when I went to my hideout in the library and drowned my sorrows in the books. I just didn't have space to breathe."

Luz didn't reply and Amity didn't think it was right to force this conversation anymore. She could tell she had only made things worse, so she simply stayed silent, feeling the wind touch her face in soft breezes and blowing her hair back. It made her feel awful inside, which she deserved for making Luz think about such depressing things.

"I'm sorry for leaving you."

That apology caught the witch off guard, making the staff shake a little as she lost a bit of concentration. The fact that Luz had buried her face in her green hair didn't help her focus either.

"It's... It's okay. It's in the past, Luz."

"It's not okay. After all that, I simply left you. I should have been your friend," the human sniffed back her tears.

"We had a lot going on in our heads back then. None of it was your fault."

"Yeah... maybe."

Amity could feel things were tense between them once again, so she decided it was time for a break. There was a small forest under them and they both needed to stretch their legs and rest for a few minutes. No better opportunity for that than right now.

After they landed, the tension hadn't subsided. She even let Webster off the staff for a while and not even that made Luz smile. She loved to watch her 'skypuppy' fly around, but this time the human was too focused on her own thoughts. After a while Luz took care of their lunch, since she was the one bringing the bag, but they didn't say much during the meal either. The only sounds heard was the wind rustling in the trees and the swaying of the purplish grass.

_'You really make everything worse, Blight. It's impressive.'_

She wanted to hug Luz and make everything right again, but giving her space was probably best. They had to hit the road anyway. They still had a long way to go before reaching their destination, so they had to keep going if they wanted to be at home by tomorrow. So, despite the quiet tension between them, the two returned to their spots on the staff and took off once again.

As they flew, the hours seemed to drag on as they witnessed the sun's light grow weaker with each passing moment.

"I'm so bored. This is taking forever," the human yawned. "Eda wasn't joking when she said it would take a long time to get there..."

"Hang in there human. Just a little bit longer."

A few minutes later, the clouds revealed four tiny bumps that were still reasonably far away. The young witch looked down, spotting the village surrounded by some woods.

"Eda wasn't expecting my Webster to be one of the fastest staffs around though. We are finally here Luz!"

"I should have rested my eyes sooner if I knew we would find the place when I closed them!"

The human gasped as she felt the staff diving into the place below them, shrugging off the little sleep she felt seconds ago.

Amity hopped off the staff as they fully stopped just a little ways from the town. As they drew closer, Amity noticed the village was much bigger than they thought, but something didn't seem right. The village was very quiet for a place that supposedly had people living in it. Even before they reached the buildings, they should have been able to hear something. They should have heard the bustling of people, or the white noise chatter of strangers. And yet, silence was all that greeted them.

As they approached the first building, though, her concerns only grew. The older town looked decimated. Windows were shattered all around. Most doors were broken down, only a few still barely hanging on their hinges. Many buildings showed scars of abuse. Some were burnt and charred, others covered in abomination goo, and some just flat out busted in.

"What even happened here?" Amity asked, shocked by the view.

Amity never expected that village to be abandoned, much less showing such signs of brutality. Luz saw one of the Emperor's flags half burned in the middle of some wreckage. It was so obvious.

"Belos..."

That was the only thing leaving the human's mouth. Such a simple whisper, but it sent a chill down the witch's spine. Amity was always trying to pretend that Belos wouldn't do such terrible things, but deep down she knew the truth and it made her feel sick.

A dull afternoon chill descended upon them. It was getting late and they needed to find answers fast, but there was simply no one to give them directions. It had all been a waste of time.

"There's no way we can search all those caves! It would probably take days to search them all," Amity was rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"We should just give up," Luz blurted out as she approached a small house completely destroyed.

The smudged drawings in one of the walls caught Luz's attention. She caressed the lumpy wall in disappointment. This monster ruling them even hurt children. How sick in the head could he be?

Amity noticed how the human's head fell in surrender. She couldn't let that happen. Luz was supposed to be the cheerful one.

"We don't need to give up Luz. We just need to think about something. I told you I wanted to help you, remember?"

"Yeah... I do."

As they kept walking through the destroyed place, a low continuous growl began to be heard in the distance. Curious about what creature could be making that sound, Luz kept moving forward. As expected, the noise kept getting louder. It was coming from a corner filled with wreckage. It was only when they approached the pile of broken planks and rock that they saw a very small bear cub struggling to get out, one of its paws stuck under the pile. Luz didn't think twice, taking the damaged wreckage off of the bear to relieve the pressure on the injured limb.

"There little guy. You're free."

Luz got down on her knees to see the bear's face more clearly. Its three brown eyes were watery and when it tried to get on it's paws it simply lost balance, falling to the ground again.

"Oh no! Its paw must be broken. We need to take care of him."

"We didn't bring any first aid supplies, Luz. It won't be easy."

They both knew that if this cub didn't receive the aid needed in time that it wouldn't survive for long. It would eventually end up being eaten by some bigger creature looking for an easy meal.

"Lucky for you I came prepared!" Luz chirped.

Luz took the bag off of her back and started rummaging around in it. Amity waited patiently, not knowing exactly what she was looking for. Moments later, she took out a roll of clean bandages, a small flask filled with a painkilling liquid, and a couple of healing stickers. All that surprised the witch.

"Why did you even bring all that with you?"

"We never know when we will need some aid. Plus, Edric insisted that I bring this with me."

"Figures," Amity crossed her arms in annoyance.

Her brother was always acting like they were going to get hurt at any moment. Bona really was teaching him the importance of bringing first aids at all times and to always be prepared for any casualty.

"Okay so how are we going to do this? We don't even know if its paw is broken," Luz looked worriedly towards the tiny brown and green bear that kept growling in pain with every movement.

"Let me take care of that," Amity grabbed the bear and then sat down next to Luz.

She inspected the cub, but there were no signs of a bone sticking out. Either way, she had a bad feeling the bone might be broken. The creature was in a lot of pain. They couldn't simply take the bear back to their house to get healed, so she had to do it herself.

"Could you try finding me two sticks please? I'll need one on either side of the injury."

"Of course!"

The human got up and started searching. Amity used that time to pour the pain killing liquid on the bear's injury. It rapidly began to have effects on the creature, causing it to not growl as much.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Luz asked as she observed the witch next to her preparing to splint the injury with her two newfound sticks.

"Well, Edric spends a lot of time with Bona, so I ended up learning a thing or two," she said, placing the sticks carefully on the broken paw to keep it from moving around. "Okay when I finish bandaging you up, you'll quickly feel in less pain little bear."

Luz was mesmerized by what Amity was doing for the bear, overcome with pride and admiration for her. Amity looked so... caring and protective and Luz couldn't love this side of her more than she already did. It filled her heart with good sensations. She gazed upon Amity with "lovey dovey" eyes as she took care of the bear patiently. The witch noticed that the human was observing her, causing her to look away with a huge blush painting her cheeks. Even her ears went down in embarrassment.

Luz saw her quick change of mood. She looked uncomfortable now and that made Luz look away instinctively as well.

 _'Oh god... Did I stare for too long? Did I look like a creep?'_ the girl thought as she hid her burning face behind her hand.

At first she simply refused to have feelings for Amity, but each day that passed it was getting harder to contain them. She needed to spit them out or show what she felt. That's how she was.

Finally, the witch tied the injury in place with the bandages Luz had brought along and used two healing stickers so its paw could heal faster.

"Done! We just need to be sure that the bear stays warm and he will be fine. Eventually."

Luz put everything inside the bag again and then they both got up on their feet. Amity kept holding the cub in her arms and Luz wished she could take a photo, but her phone needed to be turned off at all times. She couldn't handle another call from her mom.

"You two look so cute! You'll be a good mom for sure Amity!" the human brought her hands to her face and gasped in awe.

This remark made Amity's legs lose strength and she bet she would have fallen if it wasn't for the bear she was carefully holding. She shakily handed the bear to Luz instead.

"It's your turn to hold him."

Amity was crossing her arms again and had her back turned against the human. She hated to be called cute. It simply made her scream inside.

"You're such a brave boy! You're so fluffy!"

Amity couldn't resist but to look back at Luz after hearing her baby talking the creature. The girl was playing with her fingers, caressing the cub's chubby, green chest and that was setting Amity's heart aflutter. It was just too adorable and pure.

_'I wish I was that bear.'_

Her heart was pounding as she imagined Luz acting all maternal with her instead.

"Can we keep him?"

That question brought her back to reality.

"What? Absolutely not. It's a wild animal. It probably wouldn't survive inside a house."

"Aww, pretty please Amity? Look at his face! He is also pleading with you!"

The human held out the bear to her face, holding him under his tiny arms and causing his fluffy legs to hang in the air. His huge shiny eyes and the lick he gave her on the nose almost convinced her.

"Maybe if we don't find his mom we can keep him."

"Really?!" Luz asked cheerfully as she rubbed her face against the little bear.

"Really. But he is probably just lost, so don't get your hopes up, human!"

Suddenly they heard the sound of branches cracking not far away from them. It was coming from some bushes near a couple of destroyed houses. They got closer to each other as Amity put herself in front of Luz, preparing to protect her from whatever was creating that noise.

A huge shadow jumped out of the bushes moments after, scaring them to death. It charged towards the two girls, and only then was possible for them to see what it actually was. Some kind of huge white feline with big curly fangs and six eyes was running in their direction as its roars made the ground under them tremble. It was definitely targeting them.

"Luz, run! I'll take care of this."

"What?"

"Just go! Now!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

There was no time to argue and since Amity noticed that the human wasn't thinking about moving, she had to do it herself. She created an abomination that grabbed Luz and the cub instantly before it began running away from danger.

"Amity, what are you doing?!"

"I promised I would protect you, Luz!" She shouted before turning her full attention to the beast in front of her. "And that's what I'm going to do."

Right before the impact between the beast and her, the witch created a huge protective spell that worked like a shield. The creature pounced at her, hitting the protective bubble with its huge claws. For some reason her spell wasn't as strong enough as she had expected, the claws were slowly penetrating the spell.

"Oh, this can't be happening right now."

Luz looked behind the abomination and saw Amity laying on the ground with the creature on top of her as she struggled to keep her spell together. The creature would be munching on her in no time.

"You need to let me go, you brainless goo! I can't leave Amity alone. She needs me!"

The abomination didn't flinch. It was created to serve its purpose and that was protecting the human right now, so Luz had no other choice besides forcing it to stop.

"Hold on, little guy, this will probably get messy!" She held the little bear carefully in her left arm and proceeded to take off her right glove.

She pressed the palm of her hand against the abomination's arm, closed her eyes and focused her thoughts on what she wanted to make. Almost instantly, some vines ripped out the magical golem's arm that soon covered his entire body, not allowing him to give another step even if it tried to run. Each vine that got through his slimy body made a huge mess, splattering goo all over the place.

Luz reached the pouch she had on her right leg and pulled out a handful of glyphs out of it. She urgently searched for the fire spell. As soon as she had the intended glyph on her hand she activated it, burning the golem that could do nothing besides staring hopelessly as Luz ran away from it and rushed back to Amity.

Just in case she would be needing both her hands, she proceeded to create a small abomination that would carry the bear for her, she couldn't let the cub get hurt, nor Amity.

"Amity! I'm here!"

"Luz? I told you to go away!"

"I'm not going!"

She was getting closer to the witch, but as soon as the beast sensed her it went after her instead, leaving Amity puzzled by the weird change of targets of the beast.

Luz shouted in panic as the feline was about to pounce on her, but she used a light glyph that startled the creature completely. It growled as it was trying to gain its vision back.

"I'm not leaving you alone, Amity! I want to help you!"

"It's too dangerous here."

The witch got up on her feet and as soon as she noticed that the beast was about to slash it's huge paw at Luz, she rapidly summoned a pink magical rope, restraining it.

"Why don't you let me do this for you?!" Amity asked with gritted teeth. She couldn't believe that even now, the human simply wouldn't listen. "Why are you so stubborn?"

"I don't want you to protect me, Amity!"

This shocked the witch, making her lose the hold of the rope, but Luz touched the ground with ease and summoned some vines that intertwined around the beasts limbs, keeping it in place.

Amity was facing the ground, feeling like her efforts had been all for nothing. The human didn't even want her services, how foolish could she have been for letting her feelings talk louder than reason.

After being out of danger and sure that the cat wouldn't free himself, the human jogged worriedly in Amity's direction with her small abomination following her not far away.

"What I meant was that I don't want you to risk your life for me. I don't want you to protect me blindly, Amity." Luz touched her arms, squeezing them softly, but the witch refused to look up.

"You're too important Luz."

"I am not."

"You are to me!" the witch shouted, as she slowly broke down and sobbed, a wail escaping her lips. Amity tried to clean up her tears with her wrist, but they just kept coming.

Luz stared at her sadly in the eyes. She had no idea that Amity felt that way.

"I couldn't bear to see you get hurt. So if someone has to get hurt, it should be me."

"You can't simply think like that. If you care about someone, there's a high chance they worry about you too. You're important to me as well. That's why I want to help the Wild Witches. So you can have a better life. So that everyone can be free."

Luz, the girl who had stolen her heart with every act of selflessness and bravery she displayed until that moment, cared about her. How could she handle all this? Love was both a blessing and a curse. She lost the human once, she couldn't lose her again.

As a response to the emotional rollercoaster, Amity shrugged Luz's hands off of her body. She simply couldn't take it right now.

"One day we might need to fight, and when that day comes, I want us both to protect each other. We are equally important," the human caressed Amity's pale face lovingly. "I don't want to be on the back line. I want to be by your side."

"Luz...," Amity couldn't take her eyes from Luz, she was just being so charismatic and caring towards her that she couldn't even say anything. Her face was burning so strongly that she wondered if the human could see it.

But before Amity could fully lose herself in Luz eyes, the sounds of the distressed creature began to overwhelm her, its whines and whimpers also catching Luz's attention. It was hard to avoid.

"Hum... We should probably let this big guy go. But we should take this little bear to a safe place first," Luz said as she patted the feline on its big, strong torso.

The creature wasn't struggling to get away anymore, but was simply shaking instead. Luz saw the small bear struggling to reach the big cat, but his injury made it impossible. The girl didn't know why he wanted to face the cat, probably curiosity, but she couldn't let the cub get hurt. She reached out to the baby and held him in her arms.

"You need to be careful, little guy. I'm sure you don't want to be this kitty's dinner."

The bear kept trying to leave Luz's grasp, but she didn't know why.

"I have to admit that I found it strange when the cat changed it's attention towards you."

"What do you mean?"

"These creatures usually don't stop until they kill the first prey they focus on."

"And you just tell me this now?! How were you going to defeat this beast all by yourself?"

"I didn't even think about that part. I just wanted to be it's target so you could be safe."

"We really need to work on that destructive behavior of yours."

Even in the face of all that concern coming from the human, Amity simply shrugged her shoulders. She was just another guard, replaceable like all the others. There was nothing unique about her, just as she had always been told by the Coven.

The human wasn't sure why the big feline was making worried and anxious noises, having been angry just a minute ago. The sudden change of behavior was definitely weird. She gave a few steps forward in hopes of finding the problem when she saw the creature's face. The baby bear was also acting differently, moving a lot and getting impatient. She paused when she faced the big cat. It started meowing uncontrollably at her sight, or at least that's what she thought. That's when it registered.

"I'm going to try something. I just hope my instincts are right."

Amity raised an eyebrow, curious about the situation. She soon widened her eyes when she saw the human place the cub on the ground again, right in front of the feline's nose.

_'Are you mad?'_

That's what the witch wanted to scream, but any sudden movement or sound could end up with a dead cub.

The bear gave a step forward, falling to the ground because of it's broken paw. The feline worriedly meowed and licked it's face. Soon after, they were cuddling each other.

"Okay... this is... new?"

"I was right! This big cat wasn't after any of us. It wasn't even meowing at me. It just wanted it's baby bear back!" She said as she crouched down to appreciate the view from up close. "This feline is probably a mommy that adopted this cub."

"This could have gone so horribly wrong..."

"But it didn't! See these two are different, but they still care about each other. Like us," Luz showed her a wide smile which Amity couldn't resist but blush unconsciously at.

After a few minutes of reflection, they decided to free the big white cat. It would be risky seeing as it could still try to attack them for trying to run away with its baby. To prevent any ugly accidents, Amity casted two protective spells around them. Then Luz touched the vines, making them disappear. The cat could finally stretch its legs and attack them if that was its desire. It slowly approached Luz and growled at her. Amity almost put herself in front of the beast. If it wanted Luz it would have to go through her first. Then the small bear roared tiredly at its mom, calming the mother down a little. Instead, it surprisingly licked Luz on the cheek, its tongue stinging a little.

"I guess that's a thank you?" Luz said as she tried to clean up her face.

"Meow!"

"I know this is stupid to ask, but you wouldn't know where the Palisman tree is located would you? Wow, we are so desperate that we are talking to a..."

Before Luz could finish her sentence the huge feline connected their foreheads. Both of their eyes started glowing and Amity didn't know what to do, oblivious to the events going on inside the human's mind.

Luz had no idea what was happening, but if it was a spell, it was not like anything she had ever experienced before. The human was floating around as she was now looking at the destroyed village from above. She was jolting from place to place, but she decided it was pointless to ask questions, so she just ended up focusing on what was happening. Luz hovered weightlessly above gently rolling clouds. The sight of the endless span of white around her enveloped Luz in a sense of calm, the world looking almost ethereal. Looking ahead, she noticed four jagged points that penetrated the soft fluff of the clouds, disrupting the perfection. Luz struggled to understand what she was staring at. She continued to float a bit closer, curiosity gnawing at her. Her eyes grew wide as she identified them as mountain tops filled with cave-like holes.

It was all happening so fast. As she was being pulled into another place, her vision was now zooming in towards the third finger of the Titan. It had a few caves in it too, but the spell was leading her to focus on the highest of them all. There it was. A huge bulky tree with pink and purple leaves, protected by a cave filled with gemstones.

The girl finally knew where the tree was.

After that she was brought back to Amity, who had been waiting for her to move or say anything since her eyes started glowing moments earlier.

"Wow," Luz breathed out as she recognized where she was again, the big cat now facing them both.

"Is everything okay?" Amity asked as she passed a concerned look towards Luz.

"I'm more than okay! This big, amazing cat here just showed me where the tree was!" She pumped her fists excitedly.

"What? But how?"

"I have no idea, but it worked. It communicated through images!"

"You mean like sending visuals telepathically? Now that's a discovery that would probably interest the Beast Keeping Coven."

"We have to go, Amity!"

Luz got up in a heartbeat and soon she was cheerfully pulling Amity by the arm. There was hope again and the human couldn't resist the urge of squealing as her eyes shone at the thought of having an actual Palisman in her hands.

Luz looked back at the bear and pat its head sadly.

"I would love to take you with me, little guy. But I know that your mother will take good care of you."

With that Luz returned to Amity's side. There was no time to lose, so they waved farewell to the creatures and turned to leave.

Darkness had fully set in now, only the waning glimmer of light from the moon illuminated their path out of the village and into the sky. Seeing that abandoned place was the only thing not allowing Luz to feel completely happy about the staff. She felt such sorrow inside. She hated to know that this was once a thriving village, now turned into dust by the Emperor's hands.

"So, where to, Luz?"

Amity brought her back to reality, which she was thankful for. It had been something she couldn't control, so there was no point in mourning that place.

"We need to go to the third finger of the Titan. The tree is right there at the top, inside the highest cave."

"Very informative. I can't believe it was a huge cat that told you all this."

"Me neither."

They flew forward for a while, changing direction when they finally grew close to the destined mountain, going up vertically at full speed and reaching the top within minutes. Once there, Amity saw two caves at the top. Amity frowned, unsure which one of them was the right one.

"It's that one!" Luz pointed out.

The moon bathed the entrance in a gentle glow, like it was calling them to go inside. Without wasting another moment, they landed near the opening. Luz was curious about how far they were off the ground, looking downward. She regretted it immediately as a dizzy feeling overcame her at the sight. The trees were so far away that they looked like small dots in the middle of a void.

"Luz be careful. Don't get too close to the edges. You don't want to fall do you?"

"I'm not too worried. After all, you're here to grab me if I do, right?" Luz had that smug look on her face that drove Amity insane. She even had to turn her face towards the entrance, unable to face Luz with that blush.

Amity drew a circle in the air, causing a tiny orb of light to form in front of them. She walked forward slowly, entering the cavern with Luz and Webster right behind her. They never knew when a rock could trip them up and make them fall.

Luz also tapped one of her glyphs, the paper rapidly crumpling up as it turned into a second orb of light.

"Two is better than one, right Amity?" The human winked at her witch friend with a goofy grin.

_'This human is trying to kill me...'_

How could she focus on the mission when everything Luz said sounded like a flirt?

They came across two different paths.

"Which way, Luz?"

"Uh... no clue. The cat didn't show me this part."

"What are we going to do now? There's no way we can split up. What if a demon shows up?" Amity was getting worried about Luz's safety once again.

"Relax. We don't need to. Webster may be a Palisman, but he is still a bat, so he can help us with his echolocation. Right, Webster?" Luz asked the small bat, getting a positive response that was more than certain.

Webster flew forward and flapped in place for a moment, his ears twitching. He then squeaked at them and began to fly down one of the paths. They followed the Palisman attentively through the narrow passage. The bat continued to lead them, only pausing occasionally to make sure Luz and Amity were still following him.

As they went deeper into the cavern, their eyes glimmered at the sight of the shiny walls that Luz thought to be rock, but soon came to realize were actually made of bone, decorated with beautiful gemstones.

"So this is why the walls were so shiny, I thought it was because of the humidity. In my world the caves are full of it."

"It's kinda dry and warm in here actually. Normally our caves don't look so inviting like this one does."

"Because of the humidity?"

"No. Because of the critters trying to bite your toes."

A few more minutes into the cavern and it was finally possible to see some light at the end of the trail. It suddenly ended at a large chamber with a lake.

Both saw a few other entrances to various other paths that possibly lead to many other chambers like the one they were in.

The pathway circled the crystal clear water, which was so calm that it reflected the shimmering gemstones around them like a mirror. However, what really focused their attention was the large tree that towered majestically in the center of the lake. The leaves seemed to shine under the light trickling from the ceiling crevice above them. The tree basked under the soft rays of the moon, filling the whole chamber with a gentle glow. A single pathway in front of them offered access to approach the breathtaking centerpiece of the room.

They approached the tree in utter delight. The view allowed them to take a glimpse at the tranquility in the chamber with each step they took.

The opening above them allowed the moonlight to bath them with its rays, surrounding them with a peaceful yet lonely atmosphere. Luz touched the trunk of the tree and she felt it pulsating with magic, noting how unreal it felt. That tree must really be one of a kind.

"So... how are we supposed to make the Palisman?" Luz asked, looking to Amity who was still in awe of the tree.

"Well... Eda said that the tree didn't have fruits. Apparently, Palismans are the only thing it creates. She said there should be a hole where we could insert the staff's interlock. That way the tree can recognize it as a staff and create the Palisman," she said as she showed the interlock to Luz.

"I'm still amazed about the capability of a tree to create wooden creatures. It looks so out of this world."

"Don't you mean 'out of your world'? Because this is completely normal here."

The witch found it amusing that these types of things would amaze the human when to her it was just another normal day in the Boiling Isles.

Both circled the tree until they found two holes, one had the perfect size to fit a staff and the other one was big and deep.

It was time.

Amity drew a big circle and soon the old brown staff was on her hands. She handed it to Luz, but the human hesitated. It was her chance and she couldn't lose it, so Amity gave a nod of encouragement to go for it.

The girl breathed deeply and then inserted the interlock of the staff in the hole, fitting perfectly inside. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but all of a sudden the tree began to shine bright in beautiful purplish colors. Then, as quickly as it began, everything stopped. Luz frowned, wondering if it didn't work. She pulled the staff out of the tree.

"It didn't work. Maybe it's because I'm a human?"

Perhaps she would need Amity to trigger the tree?

"The staff already had some witch magic from the past so it still should activate with your touch I think."

Out of nowhere the tree started shaking slightly and an egg popped out of the bigger hole, rolling through the ground until it stopped in front of their feet.

"Oh?" Luz asked, curious about the weird egg she picked up.

It had the shape of an egg, but it's hardened shell was covered by a fibrous husk, oddly reminding her of a weird coconut. The egg felt a bit heavy, clearly containing something inside.

"That's it, Luz! Your Palisman is inside!"

The girl was so fixated on the egg that Amity's comment startled her, causing her to nearly drop it.

"Yeah but it isn't moving...," she said, disappointed of having a lifeless egg in her possession.

"That's because you don't have the heart of a witch. If it had been me inserting the staff, the Palisman would be kicking the shell from inside, trying to get free. But also, if it had been me, then it wouldn't respond to you or have a personality similar to yours."

"What are you trying to say, Amity?"

"I'm telling you that I can help you give it life when we bathe the egg inside the water of this lake."

They both approached the relaxing clear water and knelt down, glaring at their reflections.

Amity told her to submerge the egg in the lake. Luz did as she was told, feeling a chill shoot down her spine at the touch of the freezing water. The witch quickly followed suit, holding Luz's hands in hers. It felt so weird to be alone with Amity in such a romantic place like that.

The green haired girl had her eyes closed, trying to send some of her magical power to the egg. Luz could feel it by the aura around them. She was really trying hard to make Luz's dream come true, and Luz couldn't have been happier about that.

The place didn't feel so cold anymore. Her hands no longer felt cold either as the aura sent her such a warm feeling. Amity's hands were holding hers so tightly, causing Luz to blush uncontrollably. She watched the witch that she tried so hard to forget finally open her eyes. Luz noticed just how beautiful she looked under the moonlight, her yellow eyes shining bright and her hair illuminated in a way that Luz swore there had to be stars sheltering just past those mint green locks.

Everything was perfect. Amity was perfect. Luz had to let her know that the kiss between them years ago really did mean something to her. She had to know that she never stopped thinking about how amazing Amity was, even when they were so far apart.

"Amity... I... There's something I wanted to tell you, but I... I don't really know where to start..."

Luz couldn't stop stuttering, why was it so hard to tell her favorite witch how she felt?

"Tell me what?"

They were facing each other now, Luz had the perfect opportunity to scream her feelings right in front of her face, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Amity's. They were just too hypnotizing.

As they waited for the Palisman to hatch, their faces unconsciously drifted closer together. Just as their lips were about to touch, they suddenly heard a cracking sound as a strong light filled the room. Both were staring at each other with their faces completely red, both knew what was about to happen if the Palisman hadn't interrupted. They both quickly averted their gaze, forcing themselves to refocus their eyes on the egg. They had felt each others' warmth and neither of them could think clearly anymore.

The egg kept cracking, but this time the light wasn't as strong. They took the egg out of the water and stared at it expectantly for the long awaited creature to emerge. Webster also flew around in circles as he waited for his newborn friend to pop out.

"It's happening...," Amity whispered.

Luz had no words for the event happening right under her nose, it was simply outstanding.

The light faded away and the only thing they could see was the opened egg. Suddenly, a tiny, purple head popped out of it. It tilted its head at Luz.

"It's real...," Luz breathed out. "You're real!"

The otter looking Palisman got out of the egg, hovering above what once had been his home. He flew cheerfully in circles as he greeted everyone in the room.

"He is a very energetic guy!" Luz said happily as the Palisman landed on her shoulder and rubbed his tiny round face against her cheek.

"Reminds me of someone," Amity responded, looking at Luz from the corner of her eye.

They smiled shyly at each other, but it wasn't for more than a few seconds, both were still unable to process what had happened earlier.

A wave of exhaustion hit Amity, causing her to lose her balance. She nearly fell back, and would have had it not been for Luz's fast reflexes.

"Woah... is everything okay?" she spoke in an urgent tone.

"I... I am okay. I'm just tired."

"You're pale. Don't tell me that it's because of the moon, because it isn't."

Even the Palisman's were staring worriedly at her in silence.

"It's not everyday that a witch transfers their magical power to someone, I just need... to rest Luz."

She struggled to get up, so Luz assisted her, getting her back on her feet.

"Thanks... Amity."

"No thanks needed. I'm still one of the most feared witches in the Isles. I can still kick anyone's butt if I wanted too."

"Yeah... but try not to push yourself too hard, okay?"

_'I just did...'_

It was time to go home, and this time Amity could just draw a huge circle that would work as a door taking them directly outside their house.

"That is so useful!" Luz grinned. "Wait- why didn't we just do this to get to the tree?"

"Magic works in mysterious ways. I can only create passages to places I have visited at least once in my life."

"Those rules really destroy the fun sometimes, you know?"

This made the witch chuckle, but it was almost like Amity was trying not to laugh. Perhaps she was just tired. And after what nearly happened inside the cavern just a few minutes ago, Luz couldn't ignore the underlying tension that remained between them. Luz wanted to talk about it so badly, but it wasn't probably the time, not like she would know what to say anyways.

"What... what name are you thinking about giving to your Palisman?"

"Honestly, I didn't think about that until now actually. I guess that deep down I didn't believe I would get one."

"Well you should think fast, because your otter will want to have a name pretty soon. They want to have their own identity."

"I'll come up with something," she said as she attached her Palisman back to the staff after caressing his purple fur tenderly.

She would take care of that tomorrow.

When they opened the front door of the house, the lights were still on. They assumed Edric was probably still awake, practicing his illusion tricks or something similar. Instead, on their way to the bedroom they found themselves in front of both of the Blight twins. They were sitting on the couch impatiently as the atmosphere of uneasiness suffocated everyone entering the room. They were as stiff as rock.

"Emira? What are you doing here?" Amity asked in shock.

Did her sister find out that she told everything to Edric? Did Edric face her? Or was Emira in trouble?

Emira got up from the couch and went in her sister's direction, shaking her slightly.

"We need your help, little sister."

"I already told you my answer, Emira. It's pointless."

"She's here because of Willow, Mittens," Edric replied with a raspy voice, his arms crossed over his chest.

Something was clearly affecting him.

"What about her?" she asked, not understanding what her siblings were trying to get at.

"She was captured...," Emira finally answered, the truth piercing through Amity's heart like a dagger.

"W-what?"


	13. We need a plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry for making you all wait a few months before updating the story. But I'm back with a new chapter and I hope you like it.  
> Also big shout out for @Lassithedawg on INSTAGRAM, she edited this chapter by correcting any existing grammar mistakes and she also helped me pulling out some scenes so they would look smoother. She always makes my chapters better!  
> Her art is pretty good and her writing is amazing so please go FOLLOW her on instagram!  
> She is also writing the Fanfic called "A Witch with a Dark Side" here on Archive of Our own, so go check it out!  
> THANK YOU for all the support fellow readers!

The past few days went by so quickly that it was almost unbearable and hard to process everything. Since Luz had reentered Amity's life, it had turned into a complete rollercoaster to say the least.

After their adventure on the Titan's fingers, Amity expected to have a break of all this madness around her, but things turned out to get even more complicated. The fact that her and Luz almost kissed wasn't helping either. How was she supposed to think properly after that? What was she even supposed to think? However, she couldn't even focus on that moment for long, because everything Emira just told them was making her blood boil. All the chaos, all the issues circling around her, it made her want to collapse to the ground. She wanted all of these problems to disappear and simply give her a second to breath.

How could Willow have been captured by the officers to be petrified just like the other wild witches? She didn't deserve such a fate.

"How did this even happen? Why would the Emperor's Coven capture her? She didn't commit any crimes!" Amity rambled.

She couldn't think straight, she kept asking questions without waiting for answers. That's when it hit her.

"How do you even know about this Emira? You barely know Willow... Unless she also belongs to your little _'organization'_!" Amity snapped as she pointed fingers judgingly in her older sister's direction.

"She... didn't join our group. At least, not completely...," Emira looked sadly towards her little sister.

She knew how important Willow was for her. She was her friend after all. One of her few that she had left.

"So? Spit it out already, Emira!"

Her face was red with suppressed rage. She couldn't bear to see her friends getting hurt. And yet, it was out of her control, and that was pissing her off.

"She helps us with fruits and vegetables. She's one of our ways to get supplies to survive. Just like any normal day, she went to meet with one of our comrades. It was supposed to be a safe and secure location, but... were we wrong..."

Luz went to calm Amity down, but it was pointless. The moment the human set a finger on her shoulder, she swung around and mentally snapped.

"I can't believe this!"

"Little sister, I don't know how this happened, but the wild witch that was caught alongside Willow sent her trustworthy pet pixie to warn us. I came here right away to tell you both, knowing that she's a close friend of yours. Apparently, the Coven has been trying to catch her in action for a few months now."

Amity screamed in anger as a few tears fell down her face. As her rage continued to build, the voices in her head began to yell louder and louder. It was then that Webster flew towards his master in need, resting his wooden body on top of her head.

"I need to save her! She deserves that!" Amity bumped into Emira as rage filled her vision.

She was about to storm into the comformatorium with no delay without thinking. All she could think about was getting Willow out of there.

Luz rushed after her and held her back by her hand. Squeezing it hard.

"Let me go, Luz!"

The human refused to let go. She couldn't let the witch she loved so much get taken as well.

"We need to think about this, Amity! You can't simply enter that horrible place and expect the guards to let you take Willow back like it was nothing!" Luz said, trying to talk as calmly as she could.

The youngest Blight looked towards the floor and closed her eyes as Luz's words sunk in. She finally allowed Webster and Luz to calm her down, grounding her from her overwhelming rage. After a few silent moments of dealing with the echoing voices inside her head, Amity turned to face Luz.

"Then what do you suggest, Luz?"

"Well... We have to work together to save our friend. We obviously need to get her back, but we have to do it together!"

The witch let out a very tired smile. She felt her exhausted body fall towards Luz's direction. Thankfully, the human grabbed her in time. Amity gripped Luz's shirt, allowing Luz's presence to calm her down once again.

"I'm just so tired...," she admitted.

"Uh... I don't want to destroy the moment, but even you both breaking into the Comformatorium together sounds risky," Edric shakily blurted out, clearly shaken by the thought.

Amity grunted in annoyance, squeezing Luz's clothes even tighter.

"I hate to repeat myself little sister, but you should consider joining us. The Wild Witches want to save other witches too. We have a common interest. The bigger we are, the stronger we get. We have more chances of succeeding in this if we do it together," Emira rubbed her arm as she tried to sound believable.

However, her insecurity gave it away. Not even the leader of the Illusion Coven believed they could succeed without casualties.

"I'm too tired to argue about this...," Amity spoke slowly, her voice almost inaudible. "Fine, Emira... You can go tell Lilith that I'll help you. I'll tell you everything I know..."

Her body was succumbing to fatigue and Luz could feel it. She was getting heavier by the second until she suddenly collapsed in the human's arms unconscious.

The next day Amity woke up on her bed instead of the sleeping bag. She still felt exhausted, the creation of Luz's Palisman still weighing on her. A moment later, she noticed she also wasn't sleeping alone. Luz slept beside her, back turned towards Amity. Amity couldn't even get embarrassed about seeing the human sleeping peacefully next to her anymore. She was just too used to it. Luz loved physical interactions.

The witch sat up and rubbed her neck as her body struggled to leave the bed. She had to go to work that morning, but it wasn't the thought of her working that was bothering her the most. The thought of Willow sleeping in a prison cell in that exact moment as she waited for the petrification day was truly freaking her out.

_'We need to save Willow.'_

Amity looked down at her foot, it felt numb, she knew why, the voices in her head made sure she never forgot. The girl shook her foot, in a hopeless way to get it to stop feeling that way.

Luz woke up soon after. She yawned and scratched her back as she sat up in the bed with her legs crossed. The human was watching Amity and the witch knew this. She could feel those brown eyes observing her. She didn't look back as she was too busy trying to make her foot go back to its normal state.

"Good morning, Amity."

"Hey Luz," she answered, her voice still sounding tired.

"Are you feeling better? You kinda scared me yesterday by falling asleep on me."  
The human rested her hand on the witchling's shoulder, which gave her a chill down her spine.

"Ye- yeah... I'm much better. Sorry about falling asleep on you," Amity said, buying time as her foot slowly returned back to normal.

Luz dismissed her apologies. There was no reason to say sorry. The fact that Amity fell asleep on her twice made her feel special in a way. To her, it meant that Amity felt safe around her.

Both got up, both avoiding any mention of their time in the cave. There was no time to think about romantic stuff, now more than ever. Before they got dressed, they noticed both their Palismans sleeping next to each other on top of Amity's desk. It was a nice thing to wake up to something so sweet and innocent.

"I told my little otter to sleep next to Webster. I think they are getting along great!" Luz smiled.

"I never doubted that," Amity smiled back as she replied.

So many things needed to be dealt with that day. As expected, Lilith showed up at their house early in that morning with Emira by her side. Amity quickly conjured an illusion of herself to take her place at work before allowing them to lead her and Luz through the portal leading them straight to the wild witches hideout.

A plan to save Willow needed to be made. The petrification day was always on the same day of the week, so they had exactly two days left before the current prisoners would be turned into stone.

A few witches, including Viney, were waiting inside as Lilith and Emira showed up with Luz and Amity. Amity could hear the witches gossiping about the two newcomers as they got closer to the maps section of the hideout. Irritation prickled under her skin, but she had to tolerate it, if only for Willow's sake.

Lilith introduced both of them to the crew before asking Amity to provide them with any important intel she had. So, Amity obliged, jumping right into the matter. When she inquired what the Wild Witches had planned so far, she was only met with disappointment. As it turned out, not one person had been able to form any solid plan for the rescue.

“Okay,” Amity sighed. “So you don’t have a plan. What **_do_** you have?”

"Well, some of us have staffs, but everyone else only has their normal magic. We have armor, but it isn’t the best either since most of us can't really go get them fixed. One of the joys of always being on the run," Viney drilled off her mental checklist. "Oh, we also have three baby griffins. They can help us a lot."

Amity rubbed her forehead as she tried to think. These criminals didn't have much to work with, but it would have to do.

"Well, most of you didn't seal your magic. That allows you to be stronger than most, which will be helpful. Those that can only control one type of magic will need to be careful and always be closer to those who can use magic freely."

The witch proceeded to formulate a plan. First, they would need to steal a few good spears from the conformatorium. This would all have to be done as stealthily as they could to assure no guards would notice the weapons’ absence.

The armor wouldn't be a problem since they could simply cast effective protective spells on themselves. Only powerful witches could do that easily, so Amity and a few other witches would have to aid the ones that couldn't cast such spells because of their incapacitating seals.

The disguises and special outfits would be taken care of by the illusion witches. Changing their appearance and tricking the eye was their speciality after all.

The healers would be busy with crafting a couple of potions that could come in handy if the battle went downhill.

"The baby griffins could help us out by allowing us to see everything from the sky. We could see all the guards doing their normal routines, and then whoever is on guard could warn the others if something gets out of control. Plus, they are a good way to take a few prisoners away safely. Whoever rides those beasts will have one of the most important jobs of this mission."

"They aren't really beasts. In fact, they are very friendly," Viney pointed out as she spoke in defense of her favorite animals.

Emira pulled her closer, which annoyed Amity a little since the comment was unnecessary. Also she definitely didn't want to see her sister cuddle with the love of her life right in front of her when she herself couldn't even simply tell the human how she felt about her.

She noticed as Luz chuckled. She was probably imagining a baby griffin licking someone's face or something. At least Luz's smile was able to brighten her day. Maybe one day she could muster the ability to finally tell her how she felt...

"Amity?" a very mature and assertive voice brought her back to reality. "We probably should know a bit more information. There's a lot of things we need to know about the conformatorium."

"Su... Sure, Miss Lilith! Apologies. I got carried away..."

She could hear a few voices talking about her again. They were driving her insane. She couldn't tell if those voices were inside her head or not anymore.

"Actually, could we take a break? I really can't deal with this right now. Excuse me."

With that, she quickly exited the room, assuring no one had time to protest. She approached a corner of the hideout far away from all the judgemental stares. She rested her back against the wall. Even as she found herself all alone, the voices continued to torment her.

_'Yeah, it wasn't real voices... Damn it... Argh, I was doing so well. But all of a sudden you had to start screaming in my head, didn't you?'_

Amity was talking to herself now, but it wasn't the first time. She was probably insane at this point. She still had to return to the others and finish telling them what she knew. It was going to be a long day, or rather two days to be exact. But it would be worth it if it all worked out and Willow was saved. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

Suddenly, she could hear tentative steps walking on the wood floor, making their way towards her. Even so, Amity didn't bother looking up.

"Amity?"

"Hm?"

"Are you okay? You worried me a little back there."

Luz had joined her in that lonely and agonizing corner.

"I just... I couldn't talk anymore, that's all. The voices inside my head wouldn’t let me..."

"Voices? Oh! I know what you mean!"

 _'You absolutely can't possibly know what I mean, Luz…,’_ Amity thought.

She tried to focus on what Luz was about to say while fighting against the voices that refused to let her think clearly.

"Well, every time I have to speak in public, I hear voices that try to take me down by being mean to me. But that's just our fear talking. We have to be strong enough to try and shut them up."

"Oh... Those voices…," Amity mumbled.

She wished she could hear those kinds of voices instead. At least then the only voice she would hear would be her own.

"I'm here with you. I can help you distract yourself. Or, if you really really can't talk, I could do it for you."

Amity let out a tiring chuckle as she observed her human friend talking with such confidence.

"Would you do that for me?"

"Sure! That's what friends do."

They were both staring at each other. Both of them were thinking about the friend comment. They wanted to be more than that, but neither knew if the other would feel the same.

Before Amity could think of something flirty to say back, Luz shoved her staff in front of her witch friend and disconnected her otter Palisman from the top.

"Soooo, I finally got a name for my otter friend!"

"Oh!"

"Yeah, I think you will like it, little guy!" Luz admitted as she rubbed her otter's chin tenderly after the magical creature got back to life.

"And what is it, Luz?" Amity was staring at the floor again, a bit disappointed at the sudden change of subject.

"Cloutter!"

With that, her Palisman started flying around her master cheerfully, thanking her for the name in his own original way.

"Oh, so you simply put the word otter in the name?" Amity laughed as she noticed how simple the name was.

"Well, it's ‘cloud’ and ‘otter’ together!" a small, guilty grin formed as Luz gave a tiny chuckle. "Pretty smart, huh?"

"I think Cloutter likes it a lot. That's what matters," Amity started walking back to the room filled with the impatient witches, but stopped a few steps after.

"And thanks, Luz... For trying to cheer me up."

"I like to help you, Amity! It's no big deal, you know?"

"Yeah... I know."

The rest of the day was a complete race against time. Amity had to tell the witches about the guards shifts, when the best time to strike the conformatorium would be, as well as describing floor plans and marking hiding locations.

She knew about one secret passage that a few guards would use to sneak out to have a break a couple of times during their working hours, and Amity knew that would be quite useful for them.

Since Amity couldn't literally describe the complete floor plans layout, she decided that the next day she would go to work like normal and try to steal a few scrolls with the plans from Warden Wrath's room. It would be no easy task, since it was protected by a guard at all times, but she had to try. Such guards couldn't use magic, so she would have the upper hand either way.

And so that has been the wild witches routine for the following two days. Some kept training and practicing moves and special spells, some were crafting a bunch of potions, and others were trying to prepare the baby griffins for the rescue by feeding them the best food, going over their training, and making sure they were all well rested. The others tried to prepare the spears they stole from the conformatorium.

Finally, Gus and a few other witches were memorizing the floorplans so they could be prepared for whatever may be thrown at them. Fortunately, that place didn't have traps, only guards.

Amity and Luz were clearly tired and stressed because of everything happening around them. Sleeping wasn't even enjoyable for them anymore. The next day’s mission would be dangerous and stress filled, especially for a human like Luz. Because of that, there was a lot of pressure she placed on herself, determined to not be a burden for the wild witches.

Edric saw how down they looked so he tried to cheer them both up the best he could by acting goofy and cooking the best meals he could for them, hoping it would lighten the mood. All in all, Luz was much easier to cheer up. She loved food and anything that could distract her from bad things. Amity, however... she just kept living in her own depressing world, thinking about everything that could go wrong and which imagined scenario would become their terrible fate. All this gave away just how overwhelmed Amity was.

Being an actual traitor and trying to convince the guard on duty that she just wanted to grab something Warden Wrath had asked for had been quite stressful, but in the end he believed her and let her get in. But the few minutes that she tried to act believable and imposing, it made her wish that she could stay in bed all day to regain her mental sanity. Luz couldn't understand how Amity was feeling, but she stayed by her side anyways.

It was 8 pm in the Boiling Isles. A few more hours and it would be their time to strike. It had been decided that they would invade the conformatorium as soon as the sun came up. The reason behind this was that during that period of the day the conformatorium had the least number of guards in the building, which would be the perfect time to have an advantage in numbers. Emira would show up as soon as possible in the morning to get both of them to join the group that would be already waiting close to the prison. They had to wait for the perfect moment to attack, hiding in the bushes and waiting for an opening. As Amity replayed the whole plan in her mind for the hundredth time, she caught herself being interrupted by her brother Edric as he jumped off the couch and was now cheerfully asking for her and Luz's attention.

"Girls, I had the best idea ever! You will love it!" he pointed at the ceiling as his eyes shined bright with excitement.  
Joy started bubbling inside of Luz as she got excited with Edric's enthusiasm.

"I don't know if I like how pumped you are, especially taking into account that tomorrow is going to be the day I'll be considered a traitor," Amity tapped her fingers nervously on the arm of the couch as she watched her brother stare at her with a mischievous look.

"Let's be honest, Mittens. You've already been a traitor for a few days now."

This comment didn't get a good reaction from Amity. A growl escaped her frown, irritated at the truth. Her reaction managed to intimidate Edric, but he relaxed as she just ended up closing her eyes and telling her brother to keep going. He knew he had messed up a bit in that moment, but he couldn't help it. Sometimes, he just had to point out obvious things, even if it hurt the people around him. That part of his irritating teenager self was still living in him, but he was working on it.

He coughed, clearing his throat in a way to shake off the tension and kept talking.

"So, you both know how I need to get to work in a few hours. Soooo... I'm inviting you to come and watch this night's show!"

"It doesn't feel right to have fun while Willow is sleeping in a cold cell…," Amity frowned, crossing her arms.

"I know, Mittens! But you both need to relax and distract yourselves for a bit," Edric explained with open arms, trying to convince her.

"I don't know, Edric…," Amity simply didn't want to leave the couch until morning.

"I could really use some fun time," Luz got up from the chair she was sitting on and grabbed her staff, pumped for the show. "It would be good for us, Amity. What do you say? We could go out just like old times," Luz approached her witch friend and nudged with her elbow.

"Yeah, Mittens. You, Luz, in a dark room with good entertainment and awesome music. What do you say?" Edric pouted as he approached his little sister and caressed her puffy green hair.

Luz tried to play oblivious and pretended to not understand what Edric meant. Thinking about this definitely made Amity blush like crazy. Edric knew what he was doing, and he absolutely knew how to convince her. Before anyone could see her turn into a tomato, she got up and rushed to the stairs to get changed.

"Fine. I'll go dress in something more comfortable. But I’ll only come watch for a little bit and then I'm leaving."

"Fine by me, Mittens!" Edric said victoriously, as he clenched his fists in front of him and enjoyed the taste of winning his sister's approval.

After that, he told Luz that he had some calls to make to get ready for the show. Luz didn't understand why he had such an intense stare. It was like he had something up his sleeve, but the human shrugged that thought away and simply waited for both Blights to get ready. As she waited, she spent some time with Cloutter so the time would go by faster.

"It's really nice to have a Palisman, Cloutter. You're so cool!"

Her Palisman really loved cuddles and to be around her, which was surprising since she knew about Owlbert and Webster and neither of them acted like him. Had this have to do with the fact he had a part of Amity's heart? Or was it simply his personality?

Either way, Luz liked the idea of Cloutter being the physical representation of Amity's feelings. She would never say no to some cuddles from the youngest Blight, but for some reason she always tried to run away from affection. It almost felt like she was fighting against that urge to have contact. Luz wanted to change that.

An hour later, both siblings were ready and in the living room right in front of Luz. Edric had been the last one to show up, determined to look good for his show.

"Okay ladies, is everyone ready?"

"I think you should be asking yourself that, Edric. You're the one taking a whole hour to get in your fancy suit, " Amity said with her leg shaking impatiently and her arms crossed.

"Very funny, Amity. But for your information, it was Gluto's fault for taking so long. He didn't want to get in the bag. Isn't that right Gluto?" He asked the creature inside his pouch, which snuffled in annoyance at the cold now entering. "Sometimes he doesn't want to leave his cozy and warm closet."

He tapped the bag before rushing to Amity's staff resting on the wall.

"What are you doing?" Amity asked skeptically.

"I'm taking Webster for a flight. That's the best way to get to the center of the city of course," he feigned innocence.

Amity didn't like that he played the fool.

"You always go on foot. Why do you have to take my staff today?"

"Well, Mittens, if you're worried about having to walk, you still have Luz's staff right? You can fly together. With the chill that is outside it feels good to fly with someone."

He winked at her and that made Amity's ears twitch in embarrassment.

"Fine. Whatever! Just go to your job. We'll be there soon."

Amity didn't know what her brother's plan was, but she didn't like it one bit. He was teasing her much more than usual.

When they were both finally alone, Amity started to question aloud if they should go.

"What if this is one of my brother's pranks?"

"Well... When was the last time he pranked you?" Luz asked as she connected Cloutter to the staff again and prepared to go outside.

Amity didn't reply at first, but after thinking for a while she answered, "Years ago..."

"Then I doubt it’s a prank," Luz gave a small shrug and squeezed Amity's arm reassuringly as she opened the front door.

"Okay... Fine. Let's go to that kids illusion show."

At first, it hadn't been easy for Luz to get used to flying with her staff. She hadn't flown one in years, so it was hard to get the hang of it again. This day was no exception to her flying struggles, causing the two of them to get to the center of Bonesborought a bit later than expected. Still, they had a few minutes before the show would start, which was good.

The closer they got to the canvas tent where Edric would perform, the more civilians could be seen filing inside. They were filling the whole tent. Most of the audience was children, which didn’t surprise Amity one bit. After all, only little kids believed in those illusions, because the kids themselves couldn't do magic yet, so it was fascinating for their brains.

As soon as they landed, both approached the tent. There was a big hairy demon guarding the entrance. When they tried to get inside, the same demon forbade them from doing so.

"Tickets?"

_'Shit.'_

Edric didn't give them any tickets. Were they supposed to buy a ticket for the event he invited them to? Just how rude could her brother be?

"Huh... Sorry... Sir. This is Edric's sister. Amity Blight? Edric invited us to come, so I'm afraid we don't have tickets," Luz tried to explain the situation since Amity seemed too anxious.

"Ohhhhhh... The little Blight. He told me about you. Come in, come in!"

The demon's behavior had changed in a heartbeat. He was all smiley and chuckled in awe as he tucked his hands behind their back, patted them awkwardly, and showed them their seats.

"Did he just push us inside like we were special or something?" Amity asked.

"I think he did," Luz replied as she couldn't get the cringey moment out of her mind.

The tent still had the candles burning strongly and Amity could see the whole place. She could bet there were only 5 more adults inside, besides them and Bona. Of course her brother wouldn't perform without inviting his "girl friend".

"This is embarrassing... We don't even have any kids with us."

"It's not! In my world, we also had some magician events and such. Of course their magic wasn't real, but adults loved the tricks performed there anyways and you didn't need to have a kid as an excuse to go watch them. It will be super fun, Amity."

"If you say so, Luz."

Soon, Amity's Palisman flew to her and landed on her hair.

"You're finally here, Webster. I was starting to think that he had taken you for himself."

The bat chirped and jumped on her hair happily.

A couple of minutes later, both were surprised by a very familiar voice that called out to them both in the middle of the audience.

"Boo-boo buddy!"

"King? What are you doing here?" Luz tried to talk as normally and low as she could, trying to avoid attention from falling on them.

"Edric called Eda and invited us to come here, but since she didn't want to come I'm here alone.”

"It's better that way, honestly. You would both be in danger if Eda showed up," Amity sighed in relief, glad to hear Eda was safe and sound inside the Owl House.

"I know! That's why I'm going to record everything with her scroll and show her the whole thing. Pretty cool, huh?"

King was very proud of what he was about to do.

"I'm pretty sure doing that is illegal in my world," Luz noted.

"How so?"

As King finished his question, the candles stopped illuminating the whole tent. Only a few small, star shaped lights could be seen decorating the tent. The stronger lights were focused on the stage as the show was about to start. King rushed to his seat, sitting right next to Amity.

The place was in complete silence until Edric entered the stage. He was wearing a hooded cloak so the audience wouldn’t know his identity. Two witches with instruments joined right after. One had an accordion and the other a clarinet.

Amity recognized one of the musicians. It was Skara, her old Hexside friend. She was performing for Edric's act, which she wasn't expecting at all. She was using the impressive-looking accordion, one of the hardest instruments to play in the Boiling Isles. This was because the musician needed to tame the instrument first before being able to learn how to play it. Only the best of the best manage to pull it off. Being able to play an accordion in the Boiling Isles was a tremendous achievement.

Skara was playing her instrument perfectly, showing just how well she had bonded with her instrument. Amity could feel the bond simply by the way the notes sounded. The better your relationship with your accordion is, the better will the songs sound. If she didn't have an average bond with the creature, she wouldn't even be able to touch it at all in the first place.

"Wow, that instrument is really weird. Is it supposed to be an accordion?"

"You're absolutely correct, Luz."

"Seeing an instrument with a mouth and tails is a first. I didn't even know that a tail could work as an instrument key. Fascinating!"

"There are a lot of things you haven’t seen in my world yet. I would love to show it all to you," Amity looked tenderly at her human friend. “If you want me to, of course.”

She really wanted to show her the wonders of the Boiling Isles. She wanted to be there for every burst of excitement, every gasp of awe, every smile that Luz would flash as she explored Amity’s world. She wanted to be the one to offer Luz all the joy the Isles could offer. Anything to make the girl beside her smile again and again.

Luz’s wide eyes met Amity’s. A moment later, her face relaxed into a small, lopsided grin as she answered.

"I would like that a lot."

"Uuuuuugh," King groaned in frustration about the overly sweet moment.

As Amity was about to scold the little demon for eavesdropping, Edric began his speech.

"Good evening, everyone! Welcome to this magic lair, where you will gasp with each trick presented to you. Not having a good time isn't allowed here! So, get comfortable and get ready for tricks that will simply amaze you!"

He threw his hooded cloak to the air, and in that exact moment fog filled the stage, making him invisible to the audience. The kids gasped, surprised at the fog. When it dissipated, Edric was no more, and there was a giraffe in his place now. A tiny, green giraffe.

"Hey, kids! Bet you’ve never seen a giraffe before right? Just look at my long neck and legs? I'm so weird looking, but I don't mind!”

Edric was really enjoying his time playing the role of a giraffe. He jumped from one corner of the stage to the other as he bragged about his amazing long legs.

"Well, now that you know I exist, I need to go back to the human world where I live! Bye, kids!"

With this said another cloud of fog covered his whole body. The audience clapped and cheered and soon they could finally see the illusionist.

"Sorry I'm late! I hope my giraffe friend entertained you while I wasn't here."

A few kids replied with a strong happy "yes".

"Well, kids really like him, huh?"

"They love flashy things," Amity replied as she kept watching the show.

She wasn't impressed, but she was proud of her brother.

"You know, I have a twin sister. But since she couldn't come, I will make my own twin!"

As he drew a small blue circle, another Edric came to life. He started talking and introducing himself to the audience.

"You don't need to introduce yourself! We are the same person, remember?"

"Oh right! Silly me," the clone replied.

The kids were delighted to see the clone. It was almost like seeing yourself in the mirror, but the reflection doesn't mimic your movements, moving with almost a mind of their own.

"Now that I look at you... Good Lord! Do I really sound like that? And why do I look so fat from behind?!" Edric was acting overly dramatic, just as he loved to do.

"Don't ask me! I'm just a copy of you!"

"Are you calling my butt fat?"

The jokes kept coming and the audience seemed to love watching the clone interact with Edric.

After that act, Edric decided that what he was about to show their audience next was more of a visual story than a comedic trick.

"Let me show you something impressive."

As he finished his sentence, he drew a huge circle in front of him that soon covered him entirely. He was behind the circle, talking to his audience.

It was almost like watching some show in a crystal ball, but without the ball. The audience could see the blue night sky, and the stars shining bright through that magical circle. The kids gasped in awe as they appreciated the beautiful sight.

Edric nodded. Skara and the other witch got the signal and so they switched the song they were playing. They were now playing lively and warm melodies. Melodies that Amity had never heard before.

"There are millions of stars far above the sky as you can see. For a moment, just imagine that we are these stars."

Not long after, Amity and Luz were both feeling lightheaded, the words Edric pronounced sounding nothing more than a simple echo in the back of their heads. Amity felt nervous, her ears twitching occasionally. She looked to her right and noticed that Luz was watching her out the corner of her eye, the stars’ lights dancing within them. The witch looked down at her feet, unable to look Luz in the eyes. She didn't want to lose herself in all that brown. The human definitely looked even more beautiful under that type of lighting.

Unconsciously, her hand rested next to Luz's. The sides of their hands were barely touching, causing shivers down their spines. She felt Luz's fingers brush over her hand before resting between her own fingers. As their fingers intertwined, Amity’s breath hitched. All this was driving Amity insane. She could no longer think straight. Desperate to regain control, she took a steady breath and tried to focus her attention on her brother's speech the best she could.

"The stars are so far apart from one another. They are lonely and rarely collide. But when they do... the results may surprise you,” Edric hummed as the image revealed two stars coming together. Upon contact, with a bright burst of light, the two became one single star that shone stronger than before. “It's just like the people we meet along the way. We might always be lonely, but if we collide with another star, amazing things can happen. When two stars merge slowly, they can create a new, brighter star, and this star is love kids!"

Amity didn't know what was going on inside her head or heart. All she could feel was the overwhelming urge to tell Luz how she felt about her.

"Um... Luz..."

"Yes Amity?” Luz locked eyes with her.

It was almost like she couldn't take her eyes away, as if she was under a spell. She could feel her entire body burn.

"I... Um. Well... I…," Her ears twitched again in embarrassment.

"Amity... You don't need to stutter," the human chuckled. "You look adorable when your ears twitch you know..."

Luz placed her hand on Amity’s cheek and caressed it. The witch jolted at the sensation of Luz's cold hand touching her burning skin.

"Noceda, I..."

Suddenly she felt something pushing her head forward, which made her lock lips with Luz. Both were caught off guard even if Luz was planning to make the first move sooner or later.

It almost felt like time stopped when their lips met, but the flutter within only intensified. Amity's heart pounded in her chest as her knees grew weaker, and she was simply thankful she was sitting in a chair.

The taste of the human's lips nearly silenced all of her thoughts. Her whole body tingled and a voice in her head hissed about how this was a forbidden behavior of an Imperial guard, but at that moment Amity didn't care. She was enjoying the moment as Luz claimed her as her own. None of the kisses she shared with Boscha felt like anything close to this single kiss with Luz.

The kiss didn't take long, but it was enough to give away each other's feelings.

As their lips separated, they both slowly opened their eyes and stared at each other speechless.

"Wow…," Amity mumbled as she tucked a lock of hair behind her reddened ear.

Luz smiled at the moment. She felt happy, truly happy, for the first time in a long time.

"Your Palisman really ships you both."

Both jumped at King's remark. They weren't expecting him to notice what had happened, especially when there was a lot of noise in the tent.

"You were watching, you little perv?" Amity turned her body to the side, facing King as her cheeks puffed in frustration.

"No! I just saw Webster pushing your head forward. I don't find interest in those romantic behaviours of yours!" King defended himself, outraged by such a claim. "I was actually enjoying the actual show a lot, thank you very much."

Amity felt herself become overwhelmed with embarrassment.

"It's okay, Amity,” Luz smiled at her. “Who cares if someone watched. Right?"  
Luz caressed her back lovingly. Before Amity could say something in return, she felt her left hand growing numb again. It couldn't possibly be happening. It couldn't. Not now. But it was. She could see the tiny lights through her hand. She had to get out of there before Luz noticed. She shot up from her seat and took off, leaving Luz behind. Her Palisman quickly followed after her.

"Amity! Where are you going?!"

The music was so loud that barely anyone in the tent could hear the human call out for Amity.

Edric was happy to see his sister smiling after his act, but that happiness vanished when he saw how she got up and left without Luz. The human got up, grabbing her staff, and ran after her.

"Let's take a 10 minutes break! My apologies!"

Everyone in the audience was shocked and confused at the sudden break. Normally there weren't any breaks in the show. He could hear them complaining about the way the Illusionist left the stage so unprofessionally, but he had more important concerns to attend to.

Outside the tent, Luz had managed to catch up to Amity and grab her arm. She didn't understand what was wrong. Why had she left so suddenly? Didn't she feel the same way about her? Didn't she like the kiss? Or had Luz crossed a line by kissing her?

"Let me go, Luz."

"Amity, what's wrong? I know you said you would only stay a bit and then leave, but this is not like you."

"I need to be alone…," her brows knit together in desperation.

"Was it the kiss? I didn't mean it! I mean... I wanted to kiss you, but I didn't want to hurt you."

"Luz... just let me go!"

Amity pulled her arm away from Luz's grasp and hid her hand. They looked each other in the eyes for a few seconds, and Amity knew she had hurt Luz’s feelings, but she needed to be alone. Despite her desire to apologize to Luz, she knew she had to get away. So, without another word, she turned and ran away from the human once again.

By the time Edric reached Luz, Amity had already vanished from their sight.

"What happened?" Edric asked, his tone laced with concern.

"I don't know... We kissed, and then she started acting weird. Then she just... left," Luz scratched the back of her head as she nervously explained the situation.

"Oh gosh. It's all my fault... I told Skara and Todd to play a different melody, a romantic spell. That was supposed to make you go all out and show your feelings, but I guess Amity didn't react very well," he admitted, looking down sadly at the thought of his idea not having the expected outcome. “I’m sorry, Luz.”

Luz had no idea a spell had been cast on her during the act. She simply thought that the melody woke feelings inside of her, or that perhaps it was the romantic atmosphere that made her want to kiss Amity so bad. However, the romantic spell would explain how weird she was feeling during Edric's speech.

"It's not your fault, Edric... I'm going to get her. You don't have to worry…,” Luz assured. “Just try to finish your performance, okay?"

"I'll try. Tell her I'm sorry, too."

"I will."

Luz made her way after Amity, following the same direction she had disappeared. As a way to find her faster, she used her staff to cover more ground. She noticed the green haired girl flying a little ways ahead of her. Apparently, Amity had stopped running and decided to use her staff instead as a way to get away from Luz quickly.

Luz slapped her staff, making it go faster. Soon, she was next to Amity.

"Amity?! Where are you going?"

"Ahhh! Luz! I told you to leave me alone!" As she finished saying this, she hurriedly flew faster and away from Luz, but the human wasn't going to give up easily.

"I'm not leaving you alone until you tell me what's wrong!" She shouted as she tried to catch up to her.

It was almost like they were making a staff race to see who could go faster. Amity wasn't joking when she said that Webster was faster than most staffs, but Luz’s held its own as it managed to keep up. Amity gritted her teeth as realization sunk in. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to get away from Luz, Amity dove towards the ground. She slowed and came to a stop in front of one of the cliffs in the city. Luz joined her moments later. The witch sat down on the front of the cliff. A big part of the city could be seen from there, but to reach it people had first to get through the bottomless pit.

Luz imitated her, cautiously sitting down next to her. Neither of them said a word for a few minutes.

"It's really chilly today, huh?" Luz commented, shivering a bit at the weather.

"Yeah…," Amity responded in a worn tone.

"Why did you leave Amity?"

"I had to."

"But why?"

The witch sighed and covered her hand even more under her other arm. Her hand hurt. She couldn't feel it at all and her face gave it away.

"Are you okay? You look like you're in pain, Amity. Just let me help you."

Luz was now wrapping her arms around the helpless witch, waiting for an answer.

"Yeah, I'm hurting Noceda. I’ve been in pain for a few years now..."

"What do you mean? Because I left?"

"Well, that too, but I managed. That wasn't the kind of pain I meant, though."

"Then what are you trying to say, Amity? Tell me," Luz narrowed her eyes as she grew impatient.

"I couldn't hide this from you for much longer anyway..."

The witch finally uncovered her hand, but where Luz expected to see a fully fleshed hand, there was nothing, the hand completely transparent. The hand was still there, but it was completely see through. The human gasped in shock.

"What happened to your hand?!"

Luz tried to grab it, but her own hand went through Amity’s, as if it didn't exist.

"I… I don't know. This simply happens..."

"When did it start?!"

"When I joined the Emperor's Coven... I don't know why, but my theory is that it's a way of Belos keeping his guards in line. The voices are also common..."

"So, those were the voices you referred to the other day... and I dismissed your problem as something small like being nervous when talking in public... Argh, I feel awful…," Luz took her hands to her face, covering her eyes in shame and anger.

"It's fine Luz... I don't like to show weakness, so it's not like you could have known…," she looked at Luz with a deadpan stare.

"I hate Belos! I would put an end to him if I could!" Luz jumped up, hitting her staff on the ground in anger. "He doesn't have the right to do this to you!"

"There's nothing we can do. This coven brand in my hand is the thing that allows Belos to hurt me. Now I have to live with the consequences..."

She watched as the brand on her right hand gained form. Her brand glowed for a moment before she allowed it to vanish once again. She wished her brand didn’t just disappear from sight, but rather cease to exist altogether.

"How can you be acting so passively? There must be a way we can take that brand off your hand!" Luz was talking loud now, almost screaming at Amity.

She was so angry. She had finally come to terms with the fact Amity had joined the Emperor's Coven a few weeks ago, and now she discovers that Belos is destroying her life. It was unbearable to watch.

"There isn't. Life is the way it is Luz!" Amity huffed.

Amity looked up to her with disappointment in her eyes. The disappointment was not directed towards Luz, but simply at herself for being so useless.

"It's no use. It's inevitable. As long as I keep defying Belos’ ideals, I will have these glitches and voices," Amity sighed.

Luz refused to accept this reality.

"Did your hand get like that because of our kiss?"

Amity was caught off guard. She was afraid Luz would ask such a thing, and now she was.. She refused to reply and Luz grew impatient. The human got down on her knees and held Amity's face in her shaking hands, silently demanding an answer.

"I don't know, Luz... The only thing I do know is that I need you with me," the witch closed her eyes as she hopelessly tried to erase the last few hours.

"Okay... I don't plan on leaving you... But I need to process all this."

Luz was starting to have the feeling that being with her beloved Amity really was putting her in danger. She had no idea what she should do. She sat down again next to Amity and looked at the sky. Watching the stars really made her feel melancholic. Amity rested her head against Luz's and breathed deeply as she tried not to think about her numb hand.

"How long do your limbs glitch and hurt?"

"It varies…,” Amity admitted. “Minutes... sometimes hours..."

Luz didn't reply back, holding in unspoken rage inside of her. She feared that if they kept talking about this subject she would snap. Even if Amity told her that there was nothing they could do to solve this, the human had faith Amity would be okay one day. There had to be a way.

After a few minutes of stargazing, Amity broke the silence between them.

"What are we now, Luz?" She asked with nervousness visible in her voice.

Since Luz wasn't replying for a while, the witch tensed, bracing herself for a negative answer.

"We... we are together, I guess," Luz's shoulders drooped slightly.

She adverted her gaze, staring solely at the moon in the sky.

"I'm thankful…," Amity said, rubbing her cheek against Luz's shoulder and shakily putting her arm around the human.

Her ears were down as she hopelessly searched for warmth and comfort from Luz. Luz tried to return the gesture, but was too focused on Amity's condition to do anything besides simply receiving the green haired witch in her open arms.

They both knew they needed to rest before their meeting at the conformatorium the next morning, but tonight's events weren't going to grant them more than a few hours of sleep. So, Luz decided to just watch the stars for a bit longer as Amity slowly fell asleep in her arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny facts:  
> Luz Palisman's name is a mix of the character Cloud from final fantasy VII and Otter.  
> The romantic scene is based of one scene from the movie Imagine me & you.  
> You can even listen to this song while you read! It will probably make the scene more immersive.  
> "Your love means everything faultline:  
> https://youtu.be/8Ggks5H_UGQ


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